5-way herbicide-tolerant soybean in pipeline

EL PASO, Ill. — Finding elite five-tool baseball players who excel in every fundamental aspect of the game is a rarity.

Some may hit for average and power and have superb field abilities, but lack speed or arm strength to meet that elite criteria.

That five-tool concept will soon extend to a new soybean that’s in the pipeline — Vyconic — with the industry’s first trait stack with tolerance to glyphosate, glufonsinate, dicamba, 2,4-D and mesotrione-based herbicides.

The new soybean trait technology is being developed by Bayer Crop Science.

“Vyconic is a new soybean trait that’s projected to be available commercially in 2028,” Andrew Cottrell, Beck’s Hybrid Central Illinois Practical Farm Research lead, said at Becknology Days.

“I’m excited to see it. Beck’s is pretty heavily invested in it, and we’re going to have a really good lineup of Vyconic. We’re definitely confident Vyconic is going to be the next great thing.

“It brings more herbicide tolerances to the table. We’re familiar with Enlist soybeans and XtendFlex soybeans. XtendFlex is tolerant to glyphosate, glufosinate and dicamba herbicides. Enlist E3 soybeans are tolerant to 2,4-D choline, glyphosate and glufosinate.

“The ‘V’ in Vyconic stands for Roman numeral five and it’s tolerant to five herbicides. It gives us a lot more tools in our toolbox. Soybean farmers can spray what they need to spray.

“It also reduces our risk. We’re familiar with the drift issues we have with dicamba drift or whatever. If we plant Vyconic, we’re safe from that and any drift from a neighbor’s field.”

Field Trials

Vyconic continues to be tested in the on-farm trial stage across different geographies.

“It’s still stewarded at this point. It’s not approved for all market, so wherever we grow it, we have to destroy the grain. We are testing it in differently locations. There’s a lot of regulation around it,” Cottrell said.

“There’s some chance that it will be approved soon. I think there’s a slight chance still that it could be approved in 2027, unlikely, but I think it’s possible.”

Yield Genetics

Over the history of developing new soybean traits, there’s also been the challenge of combining new herbicide-tolerant traits with high-yielding genetics.

“Some will remember when Roundup soybeans came out or LibertyLink soybeans came out, there was kind of a yield drag associated with them. The reason for that was they came out with a trait and they kind of inserted into it whatever genetics were available. It wasn’t necessarily the best genetics,” Cottrell said.

“With Vyconic, it’s been in the approval process for so long, they’ve been able to breed it into some of our elite germplasm. So, we have a lot of confidence that when it does come out, we’re going to have good product.”

Weed Tolerance

Herbicide-resistant weeds are nothing new, not only in the “I” states but across the nation and world.

The first confirmed resistance in Illinois was found in common lambsquarters in 1985 that developed resistance to atrazine. In Indiana, a redroot pigweed population had confirmed resistance to atrazine in 1980.

Confirmation of resistant weeds to one or multiple herbicides has grown exponentially over the decades.

Cottrell noted that five-way herbicide-resistant soybean provides multiple option in the weed battle, but stewardship of the herbicides used should remain at the forefront.

“Vyconic gives us more weed control options. It needs to be stewarded, though,” he said.

“I have some concern that we’re adding mesotrione tolerance. Mesotrione is what I’m using already in corn. In the past, I’ve used mesotrione every other year on my corn.

“Now I have the option that I can use it every year, which is great to have that in my toolbox, but also is that going to contribute to more problems down the road? I think it’s something we need to be responsible on.”