Early-season and residual weed control in XTEND and ENLIST E3 soybean fields

June 18, 2020

New soybean production technologies boast residual weed control properties to help you manage weeds. With Roundup Ready® 2 Xtend’s cropping system, you can now use a residual herbicide containing the active ingredient Dicamba. With a 10- to 14-day soil residual activity (depending on the quantity applied), this herbicide has an earlier application window, allowing to reduce weed emergence and keep the field clean even longer. Such early weed control results in a significantly increased yield potential. This strategy can also be used with Xtend soybeans.

This new technology was primarily designed to fight glyphosate resistant weeds. Herbicides from Group 9, which include glyphosate, had little effect on certain resistant biotype weeds. Dicamba gets rid of all herbicide-resistant weeds in fields and offers residual weed control properties, especially if sprayed at the right time, from the pre-emergence to the flowering stages. A technology with the Enlist E3 trait provides also the control of glyphosate resistant weeds and allows for more effective control against specific weeds, such as field horsetail and field mustard, than glyphosate products. The Enlist E3 technology provides tolerance to herbicides with glyphosate. It is also tolerant to 2,4-D and glufosinate without offering residual weed control properties.

Herbicides are not interchangeable, and producers must treat the entire field with the same weed management technology. As such, they can’t finish spraying a field of Xtend soybeans with Enlist DUO at the risk of killing plants lacking the modified gene. Producers are used to only spraying original Roundup in their fields. But new Xtend and Enlist E3 systems are game changers and these GMO soybeans should not be sprayed like regular soybeans.

These new herbicide combinations can be applied in an application window from the pre-emergence to early post-emergence stage, while remaining cautious to avoid volatility and spray drift. If applied in hot and windy conditions, the spray may drift and damage the surrounding non-Xtend soybean crops, unlike the original Roundup system. To reduce risk, use the appropriate nozzles and only spray when wind speed is 15 km/h or below. Do not spray when the temperature is too high.

Your Prograin representative can offer you advice and guidance throughout the process. Don’t hesitate to contact him/her!