Mastering weed challenges: How herbicide tolerant traits are leading the way

Weed control strategies have one goal: remove the competition so your crop can achieve its full yield potential. Herbicide tolerant crops are proving to be a powerful tool in the battle against all weeds, including herbicide resistant biotypes.

To manage herbicide resistance, it is important to develop an effective integrated weed management program.

Farmers and crop advisors rely on many proven practices designed to control both susceptible and resistant weeds, delay further onset of resistance and protect the herbicide tools we have. These include cultural and chemical tools like those outlined by Bayer’s Mix It Up™¹, such as tank mixing different herbicide modes-of-action, greater diversity in crop rotations, herbicide group rotation, crop residue management and more.

But one of the most effective tools in the weed management toolbox today is herbicide tolerant (HT) crops. The science behind trait technology has expanded greatly since the early days of Roundup Ready® crops – today’s herbicide tolerant traits aim to help farmers not only take on some of the most challenging weed problems, including herbicide resistance, but also to maintain crop health and maximize yield potential.

Transformative herbicide tolerant trait technologies from Bayer

Bayer invests more than any other seed and crop protection company to find and develop novel genes, drawing from an industry-leading microbial gene library and genome editing toolkit, and are leaders in cutting-edge technologies, such as RNA and CRISPR.

Canola: Next generation HT traits for better crop safety, higher yield potential

Herbicide tolerant canola has been in Canada since 1995.³ Back then, it was single-trait canola varieties with tolerance to either glyphosate or glufosinate. Today, Bayer Traits offer canola hybrids that are tolerant to both herbicides, along with a number of agronomic traits that can be stacked within a single hybrid for a complete package.⁴

Bayer’s canola traitsare designed to help farmers gain the upper hand when it comes to early weed control and maximizing yield.

Herbicide tolerant traits

• TruFlex^® canola hybrids are glyphosate-tolerant and give farmers a wider application window (10 to 14 more days) than the Roundup Ready^® canola system, plus more flexible spray rates and timing.

• The LibertyLink^® trait gives farmers the option to use glufosinate (Liberty^®) in a canola crop – a good option to control glyphosate resistant weeds.

• TruFlex^® LibertyLink^™ canola carries both herbicide traits so farmers have the option to adjust their canola system as needed, based on their weed profile.

  
  

Soybean: HT traits lead to maximum yield potential

The Roundup Ready 2 Xtend® and XtendFlex® soybean traits are designed to deliver excellent early season weed control through herbicide tolerance to glyphosate and dicamba.4 XtendFlex soybeans also have an additional tolerance to glufosinate.

Bayer Traits continues to work on new herbicide tolerances for soybeans to give farmers even better, wider weed control options.

Sources:

¹ Bayer Canada Mix It Up webpage: https://www.cropscience.bayer.ca/en/grower-tools/mix-it-up

² Bayer Canada. Bayer Traits website: https://traits.bayer.ca/

³ ISAAA Biotech Update, Canada Celebrates 25 Years of GM Approvals, March 18, 2020. https://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=18018

⁴ DEKALB 2024 Seed Guide: https://www.cropscience.bayer.ca/en/grower-tools/resources-and-guides/dekalb-seed-guide