The current amount of food being destroyed by weeds is enough to feed one billion people, and that could increase as herbicide-resistance increases.
That’s why at Bayer CropScience developed an Integrated Weed Management(IWM) strategy to help farmers better control weeds and help prevent resistance.
Jason Manz, cereals marketing manager for Bayer CropScience, sat down with AgWired at the 2015 Farm Progress Show to discuss this innovative solution platform, which focuses heavily on providing farmers with multiple modes of action to combat weeds in the field. “What we need to ask is how can we protect the products we have today. With the Integrated Weed Management system, we’re excited to look at this question from multiple modes of action, because it gives farmers more choice, and it also spreads out the risk of resistance,” said Manz, “We want to make sure growers are using multiple modes of action to ensure that their use will be lasting. We are an innovative company, we are bringing a lot of new products out, but we’re also looking at what we can do to preserve the American farm today.”
The Integrated Weed Management platform combines and integrates three different components that focus on productivity in the long-term: high-quality weed-control products such as Corvus and DiFlexx, improving management practices and education, and a focus on scientific innovation through global research partnerships.
New products like Corvus® pre-emergence corn herbicide are helping by providing growers three different levels of defense: Burndown ability, residual defense to control the early sprouting weeds, and the power of reactivation to control weeds later in the growing season. The product also boasts an ultra low use rate of 5.6 ounces per acre.
Along with providing a toolbox of different products for growers, Bayer’s IWM program focuses heavily on improving global weed management practices through several different education-based task forces. In the US, the task force is called “Respect the Rotation.”
“Every product can become resistant if it is not used correctly,” says Manz, “And that’s why the Integrated Weed Management platform has a focus on rotation: We are doing a lot of training and education on how to apply our products, when to apply them, the correct application timing, and on using effective modes of action. It’s about truly understanding what weeds are out in your field, and exactly which products can help control them.”
Listen to my interview with Jason here:
[wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/fps-bayer-manz-weeds.mp3″ text=”Interview with Jason Manz, Bayer CropScience”]
2015 Farm Progress Show Photo Album
