New BASF products for 2010

Robert Hornford gave me a tour last Friday of the BASF plot site west of Portage la Prairie, Man. Robert is the senior technology development specialist for BASF Canada. He’s based in Winnipeg. BASF has a number of new product formulations and active ingredients for Western Canada that will be available for 2010. I asked Robert to list the three most important announcements. They are:

1. Heat. This not-yet-registered pre-seed or pre-emergence herbicide combines glyphosate with group-14 Kixor, another new BASF product. “Kixor provides a much faster kill of broadleafs,” Robert says. It also helps improve control of weeds that glyphosate has a harder time controlling on its own. These include wild buckwheat, kochia and, of course, Roundup Ready volunteers. Heat can be used ahead of pulses and cereals and on chemfallow.

2. Caramba. This new systemic triazole fungicide has shown to be very effective on fusarium head blight as well as on leaf diseases septoria, tan spot, rust, scald, net blotch, spot blotch and crown rust. It will work on wheat, durum, barley, oats and rye, but the first label — expected in time for 2010 — may not have all these crops.

3. Plant Health. This is an added benefit you get from some strobilurin-class fungicides, including BASF’s Headline. These products have shown to improve yield even when you don’t see obvious signs of disease damage. The U.S. is actually looking to approve a “plant health” label for products that show this effect. BASF says the plant health effect from Headline on peas, for example, means less disease, higher yields, increased seed size and an easier harvest.

Other notables:

—Tensile is a new product for use on Clearfield canola. It combines Solo (straight imazamox) with a lower rate of Lontrel (half the amount contained in Absolute) for “rotational freedom.”

—BASF has applied for a Headline label update to include rust on sunflowers, and could be available for emergence use in Manitoba if sunflower growers and the Manitoba government reps push for it.