Corn growers who use Harness and Degree herbicides in corn will soon have more flexibility in planting rotational crops and will be able to use the products in sweet orn.

Sugar beets, sunflowers, potatoes and a variety of grains, forage crops, dry beans and peas will soon be added to the product labels. Sweet corn will also be added to labels of Harness Xtra and Harness Xtra 5.6L, which contain atrazine, but the new rotational approvals will not apply to those products.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved the changes after reviewing additional data for acetochlor, the active ingredient in Harness and Degree brands. As part of that review, Harness and Degree are no longer classified as restricted use pesticides, which provides the opportunity for additional crop uses in the future.

The expanded list of rotational crops will give farmers in diverse corn-growing regions a number of new options for rotational planting. Until now, corn, grain sorghum, soybeans, wheat and tobacco have been the only approved rotational crops following the use of Harness or Degree in corn.

The new approvals will include these additional crops:

Monsanto is in the process of securing EPA and state approval of labels incorporating the new uses for acetochlor. Until EPA and state approvals have been received and conveyed to end users, do not use or recommend the use of acetochlor on crops other than those specifically indicated on the label.