New sugar beet herbicide

Bayer CropScience have launched their next generation sugar beet herbicide Betanal maxxPro.

According to product manager Neil Thompson it contains the same active substances as predecessor Betanal Expert –
desmedipham, phenmedipham and ethofumesate – but in a newly optimised ratio, and introduces the company’s innovative Double-A technology.

This combines advanced formulation and activation technologies to add faster, more powerful and broader spectrum weed control to the proven crop safety and flexibility of Betanal Expert. Explaining the science behind the new Double-A concept he says;

“The OD (oil dispersion) formulation optimises spreading and coverage of weed leaves and accelerates uptake. The activation technology, based on a micro-rate of lenacil, significantly enhances herbicidal performance of the active substances. Together these effects deliver much faster knockdown of weeds than is seen with a standard EC formulation.”

With 28 weed species on the label Betanal maxxPro provides the basis for complete weed management solutions. Neil adds; “Compared with Betanal Expert it enhances control of more difficult weeds such as annual mercury, knotgrass, common orache and polygonums.

“Where locally problematic weeds need to be taken into account there is a
comprehensive list of supported tank-mix options; due to the advanced formulation
most of these do not require addition of adjuvant oil.”

Broom’s Barn’s Mike May says Betanal maxxPro will be the new foundation of the Flexible Strategy for weed control in sugar beet. Initially the research centre developed this approach using Betanal Expert to widen the spraying window to the early true leaves stage of weeds and bring greater flexibility to spray timings.

“In practice, the Flexible Strategy enables growers to optimise sprayer use across the farm as a whole, pick spray days with optimum conditions and go for higher levels of weed control to maximise yields. Today most growers need to access one if not all of these advantages,” he says.

A three-spray programme typically costs £35 to £40/ha more than three basic phenmedipham-based mixtures but Mike suggests growers should weigh this up, not just against the management advantages, but also what they are likely to get back in extra yield.

Over the last seven years Broom’s Barn have compared the two approaches in trials and the Flexible Strategy – based on Betanal Expert up to 2007 and since then on Betanal maxxPro – has on average produced 10.8t/ha more yield. “At the 2011/12 beet price of £23.60 this would be worth over £250/ha in additional output which is a significant return on the additional programme cost,” he concludes.

Betanal maxxPro is approved for use on sugar beet, fodder beet and mangels with a maximum individual dose of 1.5 L/ha and maximum total dose per crop of 4.5 L/ha. There are no varietal restrictions and it can be applied to crops drilled with approved insecticidal seed treatments containing clothianidin, thiamethoxam or imidacloprid.