Picking of a hybrid-front 42,000 down to 8
DE KALB, 11. Selecting a new
hybrid is serious business at
DeKalk-Pfizer Genetics. In fact,
it’s so serious that researchers
spend approximately five ot six
years testing a hybrid before it
receives commercial status and is
ready for sale to farmers.
By the time a bag of DeKalb-
Pfizer hybrid seed com reaches
your planter, it has been tested at
least 218 times.
Approximately 42,000 hybrids
are introduced into DeKalb-
Pfizer’s rigorous testing program
each year. From these 42,000
hybrids, an average of five to eight
new hybrids will be chosen for
commercial market entry. Those
that aren’t selected are discarded
along the way.
“After we have discarded a
hybrid, it’s gone forever,” says
Marvin Boerboom, Research
Station Manager in Olivia, Minn.
“After it’s been rejected, we don’t
want to see it again. There’s no
need, because we constantly are
developing new hybrids to test.”
The com hybrids that DeKalb-
Pfizer researchers introduce
commercially endure varying
environmental conditions, plant
populations at least twice those
farmers use, extremely early
planting dates, varying seed
depths, disease inoculum and
assorted fertility rates, says Rick
Batty, OeKalb-Pfizer Senior
Research Station Manager,
Madison, Wis.
“Standability, drydown and
yield probably are some of the
most important factors in our
research programs,” says Gary
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Stangland, DeKalb-Pfizer Station
Manager in North Liberty, lowa.
“If a plant has good standability
and drydown, farmers don’t have
to hurry to get into the field, and
let’s face it, no farmer’s going to
buy a product again that falls over
in the field before it is harvested.”
Hybrids advanced for testing are
sent to more test Icoations each
year. This process Evolves in the
following manner:
—Researchers introduce 42,000
hybrids that are tested at three
DEKALB-PFIZER test locations.
—The next year, five test
locations are chosen to retest the
5,000 hybrids that survive the
previous year’s elimination
process.
—Researchers choose 600
hybrids of those 5,000 hybrids to be
tested in 30 test locations.
—Ninety hybrids are chosen
from this grouping.
They ’(rill be tested at 40 test
sites.
—The group is narrowed to 30
hybrids. And, once hybrids reach
this level in the hybrid testing
program, they are assigned an
experimental hybrid number and
are tested in 40 research plots and
100 Field Analysis Comparison
Trial (FACT) plots, FACT in
corporates the use of tester
hybrids or varieties to identify
variations within a plot. And from
this testing, five to eight hybrids
are chosen from commercial
market entry.
“The great thing about our
research program is the size and
diversity,” says Stangland. “With
the large number of researchers
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we have, you come up with a bunch situation, someone else in another what we say it is going to do in
of different approaches and con- research location may test the every applicable situation,” says
cepts in testing for the same same traits in another way and Batty, ‘if it doesn’t, that farmer is
things. While I may develop a find a fault, or vice versa.” never going to buy our product
hybrid that does well in my testing “That hybrid has to do exactly a B ain - That is why we concentrate
so much on research.”
CHICAGO Farmers who think
atrazine isn’t delivering the weed
control that it used to may be right.
More than 20 weed species in the
U.S. and Canada have developed a
resistance to atrazine and other
members of the triazine herbicide
family, according to Dr. Frank
Sobotka, a Velsicol Chemical
Corporation weed scientist
headquartered in Canton, Ohio.
Dr. Sobotka has been resear
ching triazine resistance in North
America and several European
countries. Researchers worldwide
have identified as many as 40
triazine-resistant species.
Dr. Sobotka says the problem is
becoming widespread in southern
Ontario, and in the Mid-Atlantic,
Northeast and Great Lakes states.
Dr. E. Scott Hagood, Extension
weed control specialist at Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State
University, attributes the spread
of triazine resistance to use of
triazine herbicides year-after-year
in continuous com. The problem
has grown with the increase in no
till and reduced tillage practices.
• The residue in no-till and
minimum tillage reduces her
bicide soil contact. That makes it
harder to control species like
pigweed. We have a lot of no-till
:y-hiip
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Controlling triazine-resistant weeds
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corn in Virginia, and triazine
resistant pigweed is the number
one broadleaf problem in com in
our state,” he says.
Data collected by Dr. Sobotka
show that smooth pigweed, redroot
pigweed and green pigweed have
all developed triazine resistant
strains in the U.S. and southern
Canada. Smooth pigweed is the
predominant triazine-resistant
species in the Mid Atlantic states,
infesting an estimated 123,500
acres of cropland in Maryland
alone.
Pigweed and other triazine
resistant species, including
common ragweed and common
lambsquarters, infest nearly
600,000 acres (240,000 hectares) in
southern Ontario - about 20 percent
of the country’s com land.
According to Dr. Ron Ritter,
University of Maryland Extension
Weed Scientist, velvetleaf is also
showing resistance to triazines.
“Our research on triazine
resistant velvetleaf isn’t complete,
but we have been seeing velvetleaf
withstand several times the
labeled rate of triazine herbicides.
For all practical purposes, it is
developing triazine resistance.”
Dr. Ritter adds that triazine
resistant bamyardgrass and giant
foxtail have also been showing up
in the northeastern United States.
Research shows that some
resistant weed species may
withstand 10 to 30 times recom
mended triazine application rates.
Control still possible
Dr. Ritter says prevention is the
key to stopping the spread of
triazine resistance.
Resistant weeds often first
appear in end rows and along
edges of a field. From there they
spread to other areas of the farm
or field by harvest equipment,
spreading manure and seed
reproduction. Sanitation is im
portant and machinery should be
cleaned between fields to avoid
spreading seed. Fanners should
avoid spreading contaminated
manure in clean fields, he adds.
“Fanners should also rotate
crops and herbicides,” he says.
“Herbicides from the same family
shouldn’t be used every year, and
escape weeds should be controlled
with cultivation and early
postemergence herbicides with a
different mode of action than the
triazines.”
He says that translocating
herbicides, such as Banvel, offer
economical control.
Virginia’s Hagood agrees, ad
ding his research shows that the
best control can be achieved by
using an acetanilide such as Dual,
for preemergence control of
grasses, followed by an overlay of
Banvel herbicide or Banvel plus
Dual for controlling triazine
resistant pigweed. The Banvel
overlay will also help control other
annual broadleaves and perennial
broadleaf seedlings.
“Since cultivation isn’t really an
option in no-till or minimum
tillage, the early postemergence
herbicide application is especially
important,” adds Dr. Hagood.
Dr. Sobotka says Banvel is
labeled for up to one pint per acre
applied as an overlay to a grass
herbicide when com is from spike
to five inches tall. In Canada, up to
1.5 liters can be applied to com
from the time of emergence until it
is 15 centimeters tall. Rates may
vary for specific soil types and the
amount of crop residue or organic
matter on the surface. It can also
be combined with Dual to broaden
the spectrum of control.
Dr. Ritter emphasizes that
rotating herbicides within the
triazine family won’t work.
“Research shows that when a
weed develops a resistance to one
member of the triazine family, it is
resistant to all of them,” he says.
Triazines include: atrazine
(AAtrex, Atranex, Griffex),
simazine (Princep, Simanex),
cyanazine (Bladex) and the
asymmetrical triazine metribuzin
(Sencor, Lexone).
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