Ready Flex Round target in progress says CSD

18 Jan '06

3 min read

Cotton Seed Distributors Ltd informed that the development of Roundup Ready Flex (RRF), allowing later spraying hence season-long weed control, is well underway in the USA, according to comments from Monsanto and US cotton growers on the latest CSD video.

Dr Anthony Mills, Monsanto's Technical manager for the Mississippi region, said Monsanto was asking growers to put a layby herbicide on half of their Flex acres and on the other half continue to spray over the top with the new Roundup formulation.

“The flexibility of spraying over the top virtually any time they want to, everybody likes that, but we have still got a ways to go as far as seeing how these varieties perform and seeing how they can compare with our regular Roundup Ready Varieties.

“We have asked growers to spray over the top as late as they need to obtain weed control throughout the growing season. I am hopeful that growers can achieve good weed control through layby time, which so far that's exactly what we have seen, but even after layby if a grower sees some weed escapes and his crop doesn't canopy over the row middles like it should, he has that flexibility of coming in and making another application.

“I do see a complete changeover (to RRF), but how long that will take, only time will tell, and it's going to depend on variety performance. We have to have solid germplasm that performs well and that can compete with our regular Roundup Ready varieties.

“So when more of those varieties are available they would both have the yield characteristics and the fibre quality characteristics you will see a better uptake of Flex with the Bollgard II technology. We have got to have good yield, we have got to have a good fibre package and if we have that, then I think growers will adopt this technology very very well,” Dr Mills said.

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