BASF introduces new products for weed control

BOONE, Iowa — Two new products launched by BASF provide farmers with more options to control weeds in their corn and soybean crops.

“Voraxor is a burndown product that can be used for corn and soybeans,” said Jared Roskamp, BASF technical service representative.

“It helps control marestail as well as waterhemp,” he said at the BASF booth during the Farm Progress Show. “Even with PPO-resistant waterhemp, we are seeing extra activity with Voraxor that we are not getting with our current products today.”

“Voraxor is the next-generation burndown herbicide,” said Josh Putman, BASF technical marketing manager for corn herbicides.

“It is a premix of two active ingredients — trifludimoxazin, which is a brand-new active ingredient that we have been working on for a long time, plus Sharpen herbicide,” he said.

“Trifludimoxazin has a different binding site than other PPO herbicides, so that is providing additional control of herbicide-resistant weeds like pigweeds, kochia and marestail,” Putman said. “We are also getting short-term residual control early in the spring.”

“For soybeans, we are launching Zidua PLUS, which is like Zidua PRO, except you have the flexibility to spray it before or after you plant,” Roskamp said. “As early planting has continued to grow, we have found the need for more flexibility and now we have the foundation that customers want with the Zidua platform.”

Fungicides have become really important to protect both corn and soybean crops, Roskamp said.

“Last year, southern rust hit very aggressively,” he recalled.

“This year, with the weather across the Midwest being more variable, diseases did not show up in the quantity that we thought,” he said. “We thought tar spot would be worse than it was.”

However, the BASF representative has been in a lot of fields where gray leaf spot was the culprit this year.

“Sometimes we forget about that one,” Roskamp said.

“Long periods of persistent humidity and moisture tend to drive gray leaf spot especially towards the end of the season,” he said. “When corn is tasseled out, it is focused on filling ears and it lets its natural defense down.”

With the current farm economy, many farmers chose to make one fungicide application this year.

“In years when we only have gray leaf spot, one pass is typically all you need,” Roskamp said. “Two passes pay more when you get the aggressive diseases like tar spot.”

“I think the guys that made the biggest mistake are the ones that went from one fungicide pass to zero,” he said. “I think they will see it in the combines during harvest.”

For Illinois and Indiana farmers, Zorina is the best option for white mold in soybeans, Roskamp said.

“White mold is a disease that robs us slowly, and Zorina has the Revysol component in it, which is the same thing that is Veltyma,” he said.

Therefore, Zorina provides long-lasting control.

“It provides a well-rounded disease package for soybean growers in the northern geography,” Roskamp said.

More products are in the BASF pipeline for the future.

“We have a corn herbicide coming out for post knockdown of weeds in corn,” Roskamp said. “It is driven around the Status product with residual built in.”

“It will give growers another option, especially where we are fighting resistance to waterhemp,” he said. “We are waiting on registration, so hopefully we will have that within the next year or two.”

BASF is also working to develop more fungicides.

“We are looking at enhanced activity on southern rust, so our pipeline is very rich,” Roskamp said.

“We pride ourselves on innovation, and we continue to invest in technologies from seed to crop protection,” Putman said. “We are helping farmers do the biggest job on earth and get the biggest ROI in the most efficient way.”