Betanal maxxPro helping growers kill weeds in dry weather

Weeds in sugar beet crops are harder to kill this season because of the dry weather, which helps polygonum weeds -- such as black bindweed and knotgrass -- produce a leaf wax that makes them less susceptible to herbicide treatment.

Bayer CropScience’s Betanal maxxPro is a herbicide that delivers consistent control regardless of season conditions. This type of herbicide is essential for killing weeds, especially in the current dry weather.

“In five years of trials, it has given very consistent performance whatever the climatic conditions," Bayer CropScience product manager Albert Pineda said. "The average control of the Betanal maxxPro programs in Broom’s Barn / BBRO and NSDM trials has been 96 percent, compared to 89 percent from a program using a competitor’s three-way product. As important has been the consistency from Betanal maxxPro, where the variation in control has been just ±4 percent, compared with ±12 percent with the competitor.”

The oil dispersion (OD) formulation and inclusion of a micro-rate of lenacil allows Betanal maxxPro application to be flexible. It is crop safe when applied shortly after emergence of the weeds and strong enough to kill established weeds.

“The OD formulation enhances leaf coverage and uptake of the active substances while the lenacil enables the use of lower concentrations of the photosynthesis inhibitors desmedipham and phenmedipham without compromising performance,” Pineda said.