This week features two interviews on Roundup Ready Flex following its limited introduction into the US last cotton season. Dr Anthony Mills, Monsanto's Technical manager for Mississippi and Bill O'Neal, cotton grower Shelby MS, both give an overview of the introduction of RRF into the cropping system there and how it can be used as part of a weed control program for season long control.

Anthony Mills, Technical Development Representative for Monsanto.

Anthony, we are here in Mississippi looking at some Roundup Ready Flex® sites. How has the development program gone so far with introducing that technology here?

Well so far we are proceeding right down the path that we started on working with several of our larger growers here in Mississippi. The program we have got initiated this spring consists of 20 to 30 acre plots or trials where we are basically given these growers an opportunity to see how they like the technology to see how they can manage the weeds with the technology better. We have got really only a few restraints as far as how the grower manages that. We are asking the growers to put a layby herbicide on half of their Flex acres and on the other half continue to spray over the top with our new Roundup formulation. Other than that, its really in the growers hands. As far as what I have seen so far everybody of course likes the weed control aspects and the flexibility. The flexibility of spraying over the top virtually any time they want to, everybody likes that but we have still got a ways to go as far as seeing how these varieties perform and seeing how they can compare with our regular Roundup Ready Varieties.

Looking at that over the top application rate, how late do you advise growers to spray over the top?

How late do I advise grower to spray over the top? I have asked growers to spray over the top as late as they need to to obtain weed control throughout the growing season. I am hopeful that growers can achieve good weed control through layby time which so far that’s exactly what we have seen, but even after layby if a grower sees some weed escapes and his crop doesn’t canopy over the row middles like it should, he has that flexibility of coming in and making another application.

And with the late season layby sprays you recommend to mix something like a shielded spray system to mix with the Roundup for a little bit longer residual control.

Exactly, that’s what I am talking about a layby residual what we have seen in regular Roundup Ready cotton has been vital in obtaining season long weed control for most growers in most fields now because every situation is different but as a general rule we have been recommending that and we will probably continue to recommend that in Flex cotton although I think as growers see the flexibility they have with spraying over the top when ever they want to I would suspect that a lot of these layby residuals that can’t be sprayed over the top will probably start to diminish but we are not going to be recommending that initially on the start.

What are your thoughts on weed resistance we are here in Mississippi and we have seen the odd mares tail plant of fleebane plant. What are your thoughts on that as far as the long term control. Is it actually a resistance or a coverage problem with those particular weeds?

Mares tail has proliferated greatly here in Mississippi in the last several years and its primarily due to an adoption of conservation tillage and no till practices. That weed does tremendously well without tillage and as a result we have seen a lot of mares tail at planting time. Now a lot of it is resistant there is no doubt, especially in this particular area Tunica County most of this mares tail I would say is more thank likely resistant to Roundup. In other cases, where we have seen problems its due to too late of a burndown application being made. If you let this mares tail get any size to them they become extremely difficult to control. What we have done with our growers, our customers here in this part of Mississippi is strongly recommending that they tank mix a Dicamba or 24-D type product with the Roundup at burndown time. Spray that early, control what’s there and then prior to planting your cotton crop scout your fields, if you do have re-emergence of mares tail. You need to take care of that before you plant your cotton and we can do that with probably with Ignite product works pretty well especially on very small mares tail.

The introduction of Flex is progressing quite well here, Roundup Ready is still in use. Do you see a complete changeover to Flex in the short term?

I do see a complete change over, how long that will take, time will tell and its going to depend on variety performance. We have to have solid germplasm that performs well and that can compete with our regular Roundup Ready varieties that we have out here today.

So when more of those varieties are available they would both have the yield characteristics and the fibre quality characteristics you will see a better uptake of Flex with the Bollgard II technology.

Exactly, that’s exactly what I am saying. We have got to have good yield, we have got to have good fibre package and if we have that, then I think growers will adopt this technology very very well.

Bill O’Neill -  Bill is a Farm Manager on a cotton farm in Mississippi, Alandale Planting Company.

Bill you have got some Roundup Ready Flex this season, how is it going so far?

It is going great. Its really performing well for us and the system seems to be working real good and we are real pleased with the system this fall.

What do you see are the main benefits of the technology compared to the old Roundup Ready?

We are not restricted as to when we can make our overhead applications of Roundup here with the conventional Roundup Ready and stack gene Roundup Ready cotton. We have to spray prior to the 5th leaf. In other words we stop prior to the 5th leaf and now we can go overhead full season long.

What is your main weed spectrum. Is it the grasses or is it the broadleaf weeds?

We have both grasses and broadleaf weeds. A wide range of broadleaf and grass species that we are after.

So in the past, have you relied on, have you used pre-emergent herbicides to particularly control the grasses?

Actually, we have not since we started with the Roundup Ready system, we have not. Prior to Roundup Ready, back when we use to till and what not we used a preplant incorporated herbicide as well as a pre-emergence herbicide that we sprayed behind the planter but we have not used any pre-emergence herbicides since we started in the Roundup Ready system other than a layby that we put in season during when we layed the crop by, in other words we used a pre-emergent herbicide at that time but other than that no.

With the Roundup Ready cotton prior to Roundup Ready Flex, were you able to get your two sprays on easily or did you find difficulty in timing?

It certainly would be difficult to get two applications out. Some, we would try to get where our worst weed problems were, tried to get the two sprays on and if we could get it on all of it by all means we would try but its certainly difficult timing to get it all out with weather conditions and planting factor and getting in and that kind of thing to get both overhead sprays in.

How many acres are you looking after this season?

Of cotton about 5500. The total farm is about 8000 acres.

The Flex technology would fit very well into that program to reduce labour requirements?

Labour and equipment as well. In fact if it wasn’t for the Flex technology I probably be considering buying another direct hooded sprayer with the cotton acreage that we have now considering we run three direct sprayers now on the 5500 acres of cotton, three 12 row rigs and with weather conditions being as they have been this year and with timing with irrigation and rains what not it has kind of put us in a bind and we have not been as timely as we would like to with our direct sprays whereas if we, you know in the Flex system it would certainly be nice to be able to go out there with a high boy, with a 90ft boom or a rig that one could run considerably faster than it could with a direct spray rig.

And all of the acres that you look after, is that all Bollgard?

95%. We are 95-5. 5% being refuge, non Bollgard.

Just getting back to your weed control program, would you then towards the end of the season prior to row closure look at a layby application?

Sure, by all means, we will probably, even in the Flex we will probably use a layby application of pre-emergent type herbicide to go in there. We will look at our weed species that we have got and determine what we need from there.

Next season, with Flex going to be fully available, how do you see your change in technology towards Flex, it will be a fairly big uptake do you think?

I think so. Certainly we will look at how the cotton yields and how it yields compared to the varieties that we are planting now and look at that and of course look at the economics of it as far as the cost of the technology fee and that kind of thing. But with all things considered, sure I am hoping to have more acres of Flex next year.

Further Information: Craig McDonald