Cotton producers across the Cotton Belt are beginning to buzz in advance of the exciting new herbicide-tolerant trait technologies that are poised to be released in the coming seasons.
For their part, agronomists and researchers at Dow AgroSciences are ramping up outreach and education efforts this summer to make sure cotton producers are ready for the introduction of Enlist technology – scheduled for commercial launch in cotton in 2016, pending regulatory approval.
“The Enlist Weed Control System really is a systems approach to addressing some of the problems we’re having with glyphosate resistant weeds and hard to control weeds,” says Jonathan Siebert, Enlist field specialist for Dow AgroSciences. “Not only is it a new trait platform that’s in corn, cotton and soybeans, but also we have a unique herbicide solution – Enlist Duo with Colex-D Technology – and the management resource, Enlist Ahead, to go along with it.”
The Enlist trait package is tolerant to 2,4-D herbicide and, naturally, Enlist Duo herbicide with Colex-D Technology is a 2,4-D chemistry. One potential issue Seibert as well as Extension weed experts are working to combat is the notion that Enlist technology and the forthcoming Monsanto technology, Xtend, will be cross-tolerant.
In recent years, growers discovered that Dow AgroSciences’ WideStrike varieties showed tolerance to Bayer CropScience’s Liberty herbicide by happenstance. Siebert says cotton producers shouldn’t experiment with Xtend and Enlist technologies in the same fashion.
“Even though both of the new herbicides are synthetic auxins and their symptomology is similar, they’re two completely different chemistries,” Siebert says. “So Enlist crops will not tolerate dicamba, and Xtend crops will not tolerate 2,4-D.”
Extension weed experts echo Siebert’s sentiments.
“There’s no cross-resistance,” says Mississippi State University Extension weed expert Dr. Jason Bond. “Enlist soybeans are not going to be resistant to dicamba, and Roundup Xtend soybeans are not going to be resistant to 2,4-D. So those technologies will exist separately just like Roundup Ready and LibertyLink do. Dicamba is going to kill Enlist soybeans and for the most part kill Enlist cotton. Enlist Duo is going to greatly injure Roundup Xtend soybeans and it’s going to kill Xtend cotton.”
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