A team of 12 scientists is making significant headway in the battle against difficult weeds through their work at Syngenta on the Acuron™ corn herbicide technical team.
“Market research shows infestations of tough broadleaf weeds in corn are up 50 percent* in the last four years, and four out of five** farmers are actively seeking new solutions, with the main reason to achieve better weed control,” said Gordon Vail, Ph.D., technical product lead for herbicides at Syngenta. “That’s why this team has developed Acuron – to give farmers a new solution that will raise the control of these tough weeds up to an acceptable level well into the season, while reducing the weed seed bank for future generations.”
Anticipated to be registered by the EPA for the 2015 growing season, Acuron is a significant advancement in crop protection because it contains four active ingredients, including new bicyclopyrone, and three complementary modes of action.
“Acuron is technically the best corn herbicide I’ve ever seen and worked with,” said Brett Miller, technical development lead at Syngenta. “That’s due to its superior and consistent weed control, especially of the most difficult-to-control weeds like giant ragweed, common ragweed, Palmer amaranth, waterhemp, marestail, kochia, cocklebur, morningglory, sunflowers and Russian thistle.”
While Acuron is currently pending registration, its performance has already been evaluated in more than 700 trials nationwide. In 2014 alone, Acuron was tested at 167 trial locations across 35 states. Trials included 95 Syngenta Grow More demonstration and R&D plots, 54 university locations and 18 distributor plot locations.
“To see the new level of weed control Acuron will bring compared to the existing products on the market is very exciting,” said Scott Cully, research and development (R&D) scientist for Syngenta, based in Illinois. “It improves the spectrum of broadleaf weeds and grasses we battle in the Midwest, plus provides longer residual control.”
The Acuron herbicide technical team is an accomplished group of Syngenta weed management experts who come from varied backgrounds in education, training and specialized experience:
-- Dain Bruns, Ph.D., R&D scientist
-- Matthew Cottle, Ph.D., group leader, herbicide formulation development
-- Scott Cully, R&D scientist
-- Cheryl Dunne, group leader, R&D
-- Les Glasgow, Ph.D., technical product lead, herbicide resistance management
-- Stott Howard, Ph.D., head of corn product evaluation
-- Jim Johnson, Ph.D., corn product evaluation manager
-- Ryan Lins, Ph.D., R&D scientist
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