Planning To Overcome Shortages

By Dave Downing
Senior Marketing Manager
Makhteshim Agan of North America (MANA)

You don’t need a weather report to see a perfect storm brewing in the agrichemical market as factors on several economic fronts collide. High oil prices. A declining dollar. More acres going into production. Widespread adoption of biotech crops worldwide – especially glyphosate tolerant crops.

Dave Downing

Production of glyphosate in the U.S. and trusted plants overseas has been at capacity. Unfortunately, just as it now takes more dollars to buy the same barrel of oil, it costs more dollars to buy the same quantity of agrichemicals in a global market. All these factors have lead to price increases and spot shortages of glyphosate, as well as a few other popular chemicals.

Plantings of glyphosate-tolerant crops are steadily increasing globally. Demand and cost increases for this popular chemistry are unlikely to decline any time soon. This makes alternative chemistries for those crops and for other genetic packages a sensible choice not just for this year, but likely for several years to come. The extra planning this involves will pay off.

Fortunately, there are still a number of post-patent products available in adequate supply and at a good value. These are reliable, trusted chemistries that provide alternatives for weathering this storm while protecting yields, even in glyphosate-tolerant crops. MANA post-patent products, for example, are field tested, backed by knowledgeable area business managers, produced under strict quality control standards and often include updated and/or expanded crop labeling.

Here are some suggestions that should help whether you’re a farmer, farm manager, crop consultant, or agrichemical retailer.

• Communication between growers and their agrichemical retailers or consultants will be especially important this year. Map out an action plan with your retailer for anticipated pest-control needs and determine what you'll most likely want to have available.
• Lock in orders as early as possible, particularly for glyphosate, but also for atrazine, trifluralin and other chemicals. It is likely there will be shortages for other important chemistry in addition to glyphosate.
• Reduce the overall need for glyphosate. Consider alternative biotech or conventional hybrids and varieties, at least on some of your acres or crops.
• Similarly, lessen the need for multiple applications of glyphosate, or higher rates, by pre-empting weed pressure with a conventional pre-emergence herbicide such as metolachlor, the active ingredient in Parallel and Parallel Plus.