BASF is serious about developing new products and strategies to help farmers produce crops in more environmentally and economically sustainable ways. Spokespersons say that with solutions expected to launch from its pipeline within the next decade, BASF expects to reach its goal of annually increasing its sales share of agricultural solutions with substantial contribution to sustainability by 7%. The company invested over a billion U.S. dollars in Agricultural Solutions research and development in 2020 alone.

BASF intends to come alongside farmers to help reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 30% per ton of crop produced by 2030. In addition to innovative products coming from the pipeline, that will also require detailed recordkeeping to verify improvements, and increased use of digital technologies.

Through a joint venture negotiated late last year, still subject to government approvals, Bayer and Bosch intend to market and sell smart farming solutions from a single source in the future. The goal is to launch the Smart Spraying Solution in 2021. This technology recognizes weeds and applies precise amounts of herbicide.

New fungicide launched

MiCrop Fungicide Powered by F Value Technology launched this year. It’s from Albaugh, LLC, the largest privately held global producer of off-patent ag products, including fungicides. This new fungicide is what spokespersons call an optimized formulation of azoxystrobin and propiconazole. The company says the active ingredients are “micronized” to enhance uptake. The company says this product produced higher yields in trials in 2020 than competitive fungicides and untreated checks. Visit albaughllc.com.

Supercharge microbes

PhycoTerra ST from Heliae Agriculture is a new seed treatment designed to supercharge the seed microbiome. The goal is for the soil to provide the necessary water and nutrients to the developing seed. The company claims an average yield increase of 6%. It can be used in-furrow with Heliae’s existing product, PhycoTerra, which provides a balanced food supply for the soil microbiome. Visit phycoterra.com.

Simplifying data collection

The Climate Corp. and Horsch formed a global agreement that will give growers with Horsch planters new ways to connect to Climate Field View. Currently, Horsch customers can connect through the Climate FieldView Drive device. In the future, they can upload data generated by Horsch equipment directly into their FieldView account through the Data Inbox tool. They will no longer need to sue FieldView Drive for this purpose. Visit horsch.com and climate.com.

Herbicide for permanent crops

Brake On!, a new herbicide, utilizes an active ingredient first used as an aquatic herbicide in 1986, for the first time in permanent crops. Fluridone was also later used in cotton to control resistant pigweed. Now SePRO Corp. rolls it out for use in permanent crops including stone fruit, avocado, mandarin, pistachio and pomegranate. It’s a group 12 herbicide with a unique mode-of-action for those crops. It’s expected to be used mostly for annual grass and broadleaf control in orchards and vineyards. Visit sepro.com.

Zinc products

The Andersons, Maumee, Ohio, launched two new products containing zinc for 2021. Spokespersons say these products provide immediate availability and sustained release of zinc to growing crops.

Tri Z combines three sources of zinc into a traditional starter zinc. Tri Z Pro includes the same zinc formulation plus sulfur and ammonium acetate, included to stimulate plants to produce a more extensive root system. Visit andersonsplantnutrient.com.