Bayer has no current plans to register icafolin-methyl in New Zealand, the company told Farmers Weekly. The new herbicide, developed with Bayer's AI-driven CropKey research system and claimed as a new chemistry, is pitched as an alternative to glyphosate for knockdown weed control as resistance to glyphosate spreads.

Bayer applied for registration in Australia in late July, developed with the Grains Research and Development Corporation, and is also seeking approval in Brazil, the United States and Canada. The post-emergent herbicide for broadacre crops disrupts microtubules, which plant cells need to divide and grow. Trials show good control of glyphosate-resistant ryegrass and of waterhemp and amaranth at a very low rate of 30 grams of active per hectare.

The University of Hertfordshire's pesticide properties database says it is strongest on annual grasses and some annual broadleaves, weaker on sedges and perennials, and notes a lack of environmental data so far on soil mobility and impacts on water life, bees and earthworms. Canterbury farmer Hamish Marr welcomed an alternative, noting glyphosate resistance in Marlborough vineyards and parts of South Canterbury, but said its spectrum, residual activity and plant-back period will decide its value.

Photo: USFWS Mountain-Prairie / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Source: Farmers Weekly NZ