By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent
 
ST. LOUIS, Mo. — BASF is teaming up with ag giant Monsanto Co. to develop new cropping systems that will be resistant to the herbicide dicamba.
As part of its announcement March 14, the company said the new herbicide-tolerance trait will be stacked with Monsanto’s Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybean trait. Monsanto is also working on corn, cotton and canola dicamba-tolerant cropping systems. The company expects commercialization of the new technology for soybeans in 2014 or 2015.

“Dicamba was chosen to commercialize because of its many positive features, primarily its effectiveness on broadleaf weeds,” said Nevin McDougall, vice president for North American business at BASF. “It complements glyphosate.”
Although dicamba was first registered as a herbicide in 1959, it’s been through several changes, including introduction of the Clarity brand in 1992. Dicamba has also been sold under the trade name Banvil.

“This stack will enable the use of dicamba and glyphosate herbicides, alone or in combination, at preplant burndown, at planting and in-season weed control, as part of a flexible and effective weed management system,” said Nick Weber, a spokesman for Monsanto.

“In layman’s terms, farmers will be able to use two herbicides, glyphosate and dicamba, that can be sprayed on the crop without causing injury to the plant, while controlling many broadleaf weeds in their fields.”

University of Nebraska-Lincoln researcher Don Weeks did the fundamental research that led to dicamba-tolerance technology. In 2005 the university signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Monsanto to develop crops tolerant to dicamba. By 2007 Weeks said he and his colleagues had been making progress.

“We’re testing for efficacy in other crops,” he said in May 2007. “That research looks promising. We also have explored some other aspects of this technology and have exciting new observations that we soon hope to have patented.”
That same month he and colleagues published a report on their progress in Science magazine, that “a rapid rise in the populations of several troublesome weeds that are tolerant or resistant to herbicides currently used in conjunction with herbicide-resistant crops may signify that the useful lifetime of these economically important weed management traits will be cut short … The dicamba resistance technology will augment current herbicide resistance technologies and extend their effective lifetime.”

BASF and Monsanto have been working with regulators at the USDA’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service to make sure the new product passes muster. “We’re working very actively to make sure we have a safe product for growers and the environment,” McDougall said.

Similar assurances from industry haven’t stopped organic farmers and environmental groups from using the courts to try to stop – or at least slow down – the use of genetically modified organisms in cropping systems.

Stewardship guidelines are in the works. They are developed in part to help allay environmental concerns and also the concerns of nearby farms that aren’t using the same system. Weber said nozzle size, for example, has been discussed in conjunction with this system to address concerns over spray drift. He said if herbicide applicators choose nozzles that reduce fine droplet size, the incidence of spray drift might be reduced.

He refused to speculate on the possibility of a lawsuit or any action to stop dicamba tolerance from being commercialized.

“The U.S. regulatory process for new biotech products is science-based, and for dicamba-tolerant soybeans, we’ll develop the data and make the necessary submissions to support gaining regulatory authorization,” he said. “That’s what we’re focused on. We can’t speculate on possible litigation.”