
Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans are on target to be released in 2016 and will provide tolerance to dicamba and glyphosate herbicides, according to Ben Kampelman, Monsanto U.S. dicamba marketing manager.
Speaking at the North Carolina Soybean Producers Association’s annual Soybean Forum at the Southern Farm Show in Raleigh Feb. 6, Kampelman said Monsanto will launch 25 Asgrow soybean varieties next year, pending regulatory approval. “It’s unique for us to launch 25 varieties in the first launch. It gives us a variety in all seven maturity groups,” he said.
Kampelman outlined the Roundup Ready Xtend cropping system which is designed to give farmers flexible weed control, especially tough-to-manage and glyphosate-resistant weed, such as Palmer amaranth. Once approved, this will be the industry’s first biotech product in soybeans with tolerance to both glyphosate and dicamba herbicides, he said.
“We feel that dicamba has a lot of positives in its column,” Kampelman said. “It offers 14 days of residual activity. But probably most importantly, it’s got great activity on almost 300 weeds. A lot of the weeds that dicamba has great activity on are a lot of the same weeds that are problem children in terms of glyphosate resistance, such as Palmer amaranth.”
Kamplelman said dicamba is a good tank mix partner with glyphosate.
Kampelman is optimistic Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans will soon clear all U.S. regulatory hurdles in time for soybean farmers to plant the variety next years. Getting approval in China is also important because a significant portion of Monsanto’s soybean lines are exported to China.
“Once we get all approvals and go into the international markets, the launch will be over 200 million acres globally,” Kampelman said.
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