In the weed control world, "herbicide-tolerant crop" usually means Roundup Ready or Liberty Link. Other herbicide tolerance traits (triazine tolerance, for example) have been known to exist for years, but they cannot compete with Roundup Ready and Liberty Link.
That could soon change. Researchers at Bayer CropScience say they have a new tolerance package approaching commercialization.
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| Bayer is developing a resistance trait to allow use of HPPD herbicides in broadleaf crops, Fabien Poree says. |
At the Pan American Weed Resistance Conference in Miami this week, they explained that the family of herbicides involved is known as HPPD inhibitors. They are already used commercially in corn and cereals, as Infinity and Balance in Canada, for example. Others are in the development pipeline. Again, they are not new but in recent years the addition of safeners has opened new markets.
Safeners have no direct weed-control activity but help target crops (though not weeds) break down "hot" active ingredients before they cause crop damage. Bayer has an extensive stable of crop-specific safeners.
Now the company has gone to the next step, with the development of an HPPD resistance trait that will extend use of these herbicides into broadleaf crops.
Fabien Poree, Bayer's laboratory leader for herbicide biology research in Germany, told conference delegates that HPPD herbicides are highly effective for control of a wide range of weeds, including herbicide-resistant types. Some combine post-emerge and residual soil activity.
Soybeans carrying the trait for HPPD inhibitor resistance could be available in the U.S. as soon 2014.
That, Bayer officials hope, will offer growers a premium tool to complement existing systems such as glyphosate tolerance. They call this development just one example of Bayer's goal of making glyphosate technology sustainable for crop producers far into the future.