Monsanto Launches Warrant Herbicide

By Jim.Robinson|July 6, 2010

Monsanto Company announces the launch of a new encapsulated formulation of acetochlor designed for cotton and soybean acres in 2010 has proven successful. The new product was used as MON 63410 Herbicide by farmers this season and will be available widely for 2011 as Warrant Herbicide.

“Farmers and our retail customers in the Cotton Belt and the Midwest have provided great feedback on Warrant’s control of tough weeds like Palmer amaranth and tall waterhemp, as well as crop safety,” says Kerry Overton, selective chemistry marketing lead for Monsanto.

Tim Jamerson has 2,600 acres of cotton and faces tough-to-control pigweed on his farm in the Missouri Bootheel. He says: “I needed a product to spray over the top; this fits. I’m very happy with no crop response versus a competitive product and the spray window it has on early cotton. And I’ve mixed it with various combinations or other products and haven’t seen any injury.”

North Carolina cotton and soybean farmer Ronnie Parks says: “We are at ground zero in terms of herbicide-resistant Palmer amaranth pigweed. We tried MON 63410 Herbicide on 330 acres of cotton this year for the expressed purpose of keeping the pigweed from germinating. At roughly 35 days after treatment, we were still not seeing any flushes of pigweed – I’d estimate control at 90 percent to 100 percent. This cotton is the cleanest cotton I’ve had in a long time, and there is no pigweed where I applied the herbicide.”

Given the seed bank of herbicide-resistant pigweed in his area, Parks says a program approach is needed to keep this problem under control. The three pints per acre of MON 63410 Herbicide was tank-mixed with Orthene, Choice Weather Master and glyphosate then applied post-emergence. The farmer’s pre-emergence herbicide treatment at planting included diurex, Stealth and Reflex. At layby, Parks made a second post-directed application of Warrant herbicide, again at a rate of 3 pints per acre, in an effort to carry the residual pigweed control all the way to crop canopy. He also plans to make a MON 63410 Herbicide application to his soybeans this year.