Dicamba Herbicide: Tavium Plus VaporGrip Technology Has Strong Launch
As the market’s first premix residual dicamba herbicide, Tavium Plus VaporGrip Technology from Syngenta delivered exceptional first-year weed control, despite early-season weather challenges, including record rainfall. Following the April 2019 registration by the U.S. EPA, Tavium offered dicamba-tolerant soybean and cotton growers a convenient new tool to manage key ALS-, PPO- and glyphosate-resistant broadleaf and grass weeds with two effective sites of action (SOAs) for contact and residual control.
“Planting was such a nightmare this year that every single bag of cottonseed I sold was replanted,” said Colten Katz, a Kansas retailer. “Tavium did a nice job of cleaning up any missed weeds following preemergence application, and then preventing the next flush of weeds coming. We had really good control with Tavium herbicide, compared with other dicamba products, so it will be our No. 1 go-to post-emergence treatment for all of our cotton and soybean acres.”
Tavium contains built-in residual control to manage resistant weeds and maintain clean fields throughout the season. The addition of S-metolachlor with dicamba in a premix offers up to three weeks longer residual control than dicamba alone.
“Our herbicides have multiple effective sites of action that work against multiple weeds,” said Kevin Scholl, Syngenta agronomy service representative based in Wyoming, Illinois. “In Tavium, that means each active ingredient combines to create a convenient and effective premix with proven crop safety.”
The historically wet weather also challenged grower Aaron Cross from Lewis, KS.
“With the moisture concerns and problems getting in the field, the larger Tavium herbicide application window really helped,” Cross said. “Two years ago, we ran another dicamba product on our soybeans and had a real issue making the application window, along with controlling what we needed to control. This same field cleaned up terrifically with Tavium, and we’re so pleased with the performance that we couldn’t ask for a better herbicide technology.”
Tavium can be used preplant, at planting and early post-emergence on Roundup Ready 2 Xtend Soybeans and Bollgard II XtendFlex Cotton. It targets driver weeds, including waterhemp, Palmer amaranth, horseweed (marestail), common and giant ragweed, kochia, morningglory, barnyardgrass, and foxtail. Tavium controls 21 different weeds when applied preemergence and 63 weeds as a post-emergence herbicide.
“If there was ever a season that put weed control to the test, 2019 would be it,” said Bobby Bachman, herbicide product lead at Syngenta. “Tavium stood up to the test due to its powerful formulation and flexibility. The harvest delays we’re having this year are similar to last, and once again, we won’t have much time to spray burndown applications. This means next season’s preemergence and early post-emergence application choices are all the more important.”
Given the delayed herbicide applications early this year, the weed seed bank is likely larger moving into 2020. Burndown applications are the best way to control winter annual weeds. But if harvest delays prevent fall tillage, winter annuals are more likely to germinate and show early next spring. But unlike this past spring, the year ahead may offer an opportunity to control winter annuals as early as March in some areas. In the event both burndown application windows are missed, residual preemergence weed control is all the more critical for planting soybeans and cotton into healthy, clean soil. Iowa State University researchers report maintaining a high level of weed control for two years helps diminish the population of many key driver weeds.
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