If you can't beat them, join them. That seems to be the motto of many chemical companies since the advent of glyphosate-tolerant crops.

A number of “new” herbicides are familiar products that can be tankmixed or used sequentially with glyphosate. But some offer added safety and improved formulations.

Synchrony XP, for example, comes in a new extruded-paste formulation that makes for easier handling, says Jeff Carpenter, soybean product manager with DuPont Crop Protection.

“Extruded-paste formulations allow us to combine multiple active ingredients together,” he says.

A combination of chlorimuron ethyl (Classic) and thifensulfuron methyl (Harmony GT), Synchrony XP has the same active ingredients as Synchrony STS, but at a lower concentration.

The product provides burndown, pre-emergent, at-planting and post-emergent control in soybeans. Carpenter especially encourages growers to tankmix Synchrony XP with glyphosate for use on glyphosate-tolerant beans.

“This product can be applied anytime glyphosate is applied, whether pre-emerge, at-planting or postemerge. Synchrony XP enhances glyphosate performance by providing an alternate mode of action, which delivers more consistent performance on tough broadleaf weeds.”

In many cases, some broadleaf weeds, such as lambsquarter, marestail, pigweeds or yellow nutsedge, escape glyphosate-only applications. Adding Synchrony XP with glyphosate may offer better weed control in one application, Carpenter says.

It can be used on conventional or Roundup Ready beans as well as on STS/Roundup Ready stacked varieties.

An S-metolachlor that controls most annual grasses and small-seeded broadleaf weeds, Charger Max, from Agriliance, is similar to Syngenta's Dual II Magnum. It can be applied early preplant, preplant incorporated or pre-emergence. It can also be tankmixed with a number of pre-emergent products and applied postemergence on soybeans — with some restrictions.

It controls a broad spectrum of grasses, including barnyardgrass, broadleaf signalgrass, crabgrass and johnsongrass, and broadleaves such as black nightshade, pigweeds, carpetweed and waterhemps.

Pendant, also from Agriliance, contains pendimethalin, much like BASF's Prowl and Dow's Pendimax. It can be used alone or in a tankmix as a foundation treatment followed by a post herbicide in many crops. When the product is soil-applied and followed by glyphosate, it works especially well to control waterhemp in Roundup Ready soybeans, according to the company.

It controls many grasses, including barnyardgrass, crabgrasses, fall panicum and foxtails, as well as broadleaves such as lambsquarters and pigweeds.

Gramoxone Inteon, from Syngenta Crop Protection, provides the same broad-spectrum burndown weed control as Gramoxone Max.

The user-friendly product contains paraquat. It makes use of alginates — natural products that help reduce paraquat toxicity — and emetics and purgatives, which expel the chemical in the event of accidental ingestion.

It also comes with simpler rates to make handling and mixing easier. Gramoxone Inteon contains 2 lbs./gal. of paraquat compared to the 3 lbs. used in Gramoxone Max.