Corn farmers don’t have it easy. They spend many a sleepless night worrying about their crops. It’s not just pests such as the dreaded Western corn rootworm that are the problem – weedy competitors can significantly affect the corn plant too. Especially in the early growth phase: as soon as the maize seedlings penetrate into the soil, they have to start competing with all sorts of weeds for water, light and nutrients. Without the proper use of effective herbicides, the delicate seedlings can lose this battle – often with serious consequences, as Raimund Trapp knows: “If something goes wrong during early weed control in maize crops, then yield losses in the double-digit percentage range can occur,” says the Bayer CropScience Global Segment Manager for Maize Herbicides, based in Monheim, Germany.
With Adengo®, Bayer CropScience is now offering a product that protects plants against competition from weeds during exactly this stage, thus allowing seedlings to develop unhampered. This new broad-spectrum herbicide is capable of reliable control of more than 85 weedy grass and broadleaved weed species. Over the last few years, it has been brought onto the market as Adengo in Argentina, Hungary, Romania and Ukraine, and under the trade name Corvus® in the U.S. Further launches in various countries around the globe are planned over the next three years.
“The great advantage of Adengo is that it provides a so-called one-shot solution,” says Trapp. The new product is capable of covering the entire spectrum of economically important weeds in one pass. This means that tank mixtures with other herbicides or additional sprays are only necessary in exceptional cases. Because it can be used from pre-emergence through to the early post-emergence phase, the new product is also the tool of choice for farmers who want to be flexible in terms of the timing of application. “That means a lightening of peak workloads for the farmer,” he points out. And because the new herbicide only needs to be applied at very low doses, the expenses of transport, storage and disposal of packaging materials are also lower.
Extended window of application increases flexibility
Benefits that are already being appreciated by many farmers. For example, in Hungary: “In the past, we had serious problems with various weeds, such as Panicum miliaceum and Echinochloa crus-galli,” says Tamás Kókai, Head of Crop Protection at Agro Systems Co. of Herceghalom in central Hungary. But Amaranth, Chenopodium, Datura, and Xanthium were also of concern on the company’s 1,500-hectare area under cultivation.
Problems that belong to the past now – thanks to Adengo. The product’s biggest advantage is its broad spectrum of weed control, explains Kókai. Followed by the high degree of flexibility the new herbicide offers by virtue of its long window of application: “We farm a large area. If the weather doesn’t cooperate, we may need to interrupt the pre-emergence treatment – while the plants are already beginning to germinate.” But that’s not a problem with Adengo: the treatment can simply continue in the post-emergence phase.
Words of approval that István Rikk likes to hear. “Our customers are very satisfied with Adengo,” says the Crop Manager for Corn and Sunflower with Bayer CropScience Hungary. He’s particularly proud of the fact that the new product has even played its part in the attainment of an award: it helped Ferenc Mikó, a farmer living in Central Hungary, to achieve a spectacular harvest on his 1,800-hectare area under cultivation: By producing almost 18.4 tons per Hectare, the farmer won the 2010 National Corn Yield Competition “This represents peak yield both in Hungary and in Europe,” says Rikk.
High level of customer satisfaction
Adengo’s special feature is its innovative mixture of active substances. The product combines two broadly effective substances: isoxaflutole, a proven active substance from the class of so-called bleachers; and the ALS inhibitors thiencarbazone-methyl, which was recently developed in Bayer CropScience’s laboratories.
The two active substances target entirely different metabolic processes. Isoxaflutole ensures that the weed plant loses its natural protection from sunlight. It does this by blocking the activity of an enzyme that is needed for the synthesis of the pigment keratin, which otherwise protects the green leaf pigment chlorophyll from overexposure to light energy. The result: the leaves whiten, and the weed collapses. Thiencarbazone-methyl blocks a different enzyme in the weeds – one that is responsible for the synthesis of three essential amino acids that are ultimately needed for a number of different proteins. Without these three protein building blocks, the plant stops growing and finally dies off.
The two substances act very effectively against a broad range of plants, but are generally well tolerated by maize crops. In order to ensure that this compatibility is consistent under various conditions, Adengo also contains the substance cyprosulfamide: this so-called “safener” ensures that the active substances are broken down very quickly specifically by the corn plant. In this way, the crop is protected, but the target weeds are killed off quickly.
The two active substances are both soil- and leaf-active: in pre-emergence treatment, Adengo is sprayed to form a film on the soil surface. As soon as rain triggers germination, the weeds start to grow through this film, taking up the active substance in the process. It also enters the plant through the roots and the hypocotyl – the lowermost section of the shoot axis. After post-emergence sprays, weeds take up the active substances via the young leaves, as well as through the hypocotyl and root.
A safener protects maize plants
Corn growers beyond Hungary are also enthusiastic about the new herbicide. During 2010 in particular – with its variable weather conditions – many of them were able to benefit from a further advantage: the mixture of active substances in Adengo starts to become active just as the weeds begin to germinate, i.e. as soon as the soil is moist. During periods of drought, they become temporarily inactive – only to resume their activity as soon as it starts to rain again.
For corn experts, Adengo is also an important tool for integrated weed management, the specific objective of which is to prevent the development of weed resistance and to reduce the spread of existing herbicide resistance. Adengo has already proven itself an important element of effective control strategies in many situations.
Given all of these qualities, it is no wonder that Bayer CropScience is seeking to position Adengo at the top of the list of early weed control segment herbicides. “Adengo has the potential to become every corn grower’s personal number one herbicide – all around the world,” Trapp summarizes the feed back of his country colleagues: “The high degree of acceptance already shown in five countries is an encouraging sign.”
