Here we’ve put together a quick list of cereal crop inputs that were announced in our earshot during 2023, including several due out for the 2024 growing season. We’ve listed them here in no particular order and if we’ve inadvertently missed someone or something, let us know at [email protected].
Straxan fungicide
Corteva bills its cereal fungicide Straxan as “advanced protection against early-season diseases” including fusarium species, rhizoctonia and true loose smut. It combines three actives: difenoconazole, metalaxyl and tebuconazole.
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Kirsten Ratzlaff, Corteva’s portfolio manager for seed-applied technologies and biologicals, says the product’s formulation “provides flexibility — both through commercial seed treaters and on-farm equipment — and stable application under varying conditions and temperatures.’’
Corteva says the formulation is also “highly compatible” for use with other seed treatment products such as its Lumivia CPL insecticide.
Talinor herbicide
Syngenta’s Talinor is a post-emergent herbicide billed for use against “difficult” broadleaf weeds, including herbicide-resistant weeds, in Prairie spring wheat, durum and barley.
The product is a premix liquid formulation of bicyclopyrone (Group 27) and bromoxynil (Group 6) for use on spring wheat, durum wheat, and barley with an application range from the two-leaf stage through to six-leaf three-tiller.
Rob Klewchuk, Syngenta’s technical lead for Western Canada, says bicyclopyrone in particular “will help growers proactively guard against weed resistance.”
Syngenta says the product can also be paired with a “wide list” of grass weed tank mix partners and will be available in “multiple” packaging sizes for 2024.
Oxbow herbicide
Nufarm’s first entry in its new Duplosan suite of cereal herbicides is Oxbow, to be available in the West for the 2024 growing season. The company said its researchers have “rediscovered” dichlorprop-p, a decades-old Group 4 active which was first used as an additive to 2,4-D but with unique properties that “largely remained unexplored.”
Oxbow combines that active with bromoxynil (Group 6) for use against broadleaf weeds such as herbicide-resistant kochia.
“Our researchers and agronomists challenged themselves to find a new path forward in managing resistant weeds in cereals that aren’t being managed by other herbicides,” Tyler Gullen, Nufarm’s technical services manager, said in a release..”With Oxbow, we are presenting the first novel Group 4 mode of action in nearly a decade.”
OnDeck herbicide
Earlier in 2023 Lee Hart reported on Corteva’s release of OnDeck, a post-emergent herbicide for use in spring and winter wheat, durum and barley in the brown soil zones of the Prairies.
OnDeck combines tolpyralate, a Group 27 herbicide developed by ISK Biosciences and new to the cereal market in the West, with bromoxynil (Group 6) for “a strong measure of control over key broadleaf weeds like kochia, wild mustard, wild buckwheat, and volunteer canola, as well as control of green and yellow foxtail.”
Tolpyralate, Corteva said, allows farmers to plant lentils, peas and canola the year after application, “maintaining the rotational freedom and flexibility that is important in the brown and dark brown soil zones of Western Canada.”
Yalos inoculant
Crop inputs distributor Winfield United will be handling sales of Lavie Bio’s inoculant seed treatment Yalos, which is being marketed in Canada with a particular focus on boosting yields in spring wheat, durum and barley in the Prairie provinces.
Yalos, formerly known as Thrivus, is a microbial-based inoculant sold as water-dispersible granules to be applied as a seed treatment. Initially marketed for use in spring wheat, Lavie Bio announced in November it would expand that to include barley and durum in 2024.
Lavie Bio says its trial data points to a “yield advantage of three to four bushels per acre” in wheat, durum and barley and a “four-to-one return on investment for farmers, given current market values.”
For a better idea of what the investment would be, a company representative put the cost of Yalos at $9.95 per acre, based on 100 pounds of seed. The agreement with Winfield United will make the product available in the West for the 2024 growing season.
Wave biostimulant
UPL in early 2023 picked up CFIA registration for Wave, a biostimulant using a liquid seaweed extract that “improves crops’ nutrient uptake, resulting in enhanced plant vigour, growth, and overall health. It also supports vital molecular and physiological processes within the plant, improving its ability to withstand abiotic stress.”
The product is meant for use across a “wide range” of crops, including wheat as well as canola, field peas, corn, soybeans, apples and grapes.
