XtendFlex Soybean Technology Doubles Down On Yield, Weed Control

As farmers head to their fields to plant soybeans this spring, many will be trying the new XtendFlex varieties from Bayer Crop Science. This is the first season for full-scale commercial use by U.S. and Canadian farmers of the technology, which offers triple-stacked trait tolerance to dicamba, glyphosate and glufosinate herbicides.

Company officials expect to see 20 million acres of XtendFlex soybeans planted in North America this season.

“They’re available in all maturities from group 0 to group 7 this season, so they will fit a lot of different acres,” says Megan McQuoid, soybean traits marketing manager for Bayer. She adds that the supply plan for the varieties includes all Bayer brands and licensees.

XtendFlex is the second soybean technology to reach the marketplace with three-way herbicide tolerance. The first such product was Enlist E3 soybeans, which are in their second year for full commercial use this season and offer tolerance to 2,4-D choline, glyphosate and glufosinate.  

While both technologies tout the addition of glufosinate (Liberty) to their lineup, the technology is starting to show cracks in its ability to thwart tough-to-control broadleaf weeds, specifically Palmer amaranth (pigweed). Work by Tom Barber and Jason Norsworthy, University of Arkansas Extension weed scientists, confirmed pigweed resistance to glufosinate in a pair of fields in northeast Arkansas’ Mississippi County in February.

Bayer is doubling down on tough weeds by offering farmers an enhanced 2021 Spray Early With Confidence Weed Control program guarantee. The program starts with a 21-day broadleaf weed control strategy when farmers make a preemergence/at planting application of XtendiMax herbicide with VaporGrip Technology, a restricted use pesticide, which was granted a five-year use label from EPA in October of 2020. For farmers who experience less than commercially acceptable performance on labeled weeds, Bayer will pay up to $15 an acre toward an additional application.

“We continue to recommend starting clean, applying a pre at planting and then following with an early post herbicide application, making sure that farmers have overlapping residuals and multiple modes of action,” McQuoid says. “So, we're targeting weeds early and also preventing seed production.”

Bret Begemann, chief operating officer for the Crop Science division of Bayer, says the ability of weeds to develop resistance to herbicides increases the need for companies to develop new technology to address them. He says the company expects to launch crops with tolerances to six herbicide classes by 2030.

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