It now accounts for 63.5% of the total global herbicide market and it continues to be reinvented. Back then, it cost between IRL£80 to £120 per litre, a far cry from today where half that price in euro would buy 20 litres.

Last week Monsanto launched yet another variation of the product which is claimed to bring a number of benefits to growers and the environment. The new product is called Roundup Flex and it is a 480g/l concentration formulated as a potassium salt in a soluble liquid (SL) formulation. It is a high performance product which is generally regarded as being as good as or better than Roundup Gold.

Smaller molecules

The potassium salt means that the molecules are smaller and this enables the active to be more concentrated than standard 360g/l formulations. A 15-litre can of Roundup Flex contains the same amount of glyphosate as 20 litres of a 360g/l product. The new 15-litre pack weighs almost 20% less than the equivalent 20-litre standard container. The higher concentration also means less packaging, less haulage and transport and less storage requirement. The 15-litre Flex pack is in a low glug easy to pour container.

Changed formulation

Improved formulation remains an objective for all pesticide manufacturers. And improved formulation is the main feature of Roundup Flex. EU legislation is forcing formulation changes and this is altering the surfactants used.

Roundup Flex contains 167g/l of surfactant but no tallow amine. The 12% weight to volume (w/v) inclusion features 2% of a highly active nitroryl surfactant plus 10% alkyl polysaccharide (APS). The nitroryl has both hydrophilic and lipophylic properties and this is important in helping to transport the active ingredient across the cell membranes to get it to the point where it works. The APS is a non-ionic, readily biodegradable plant derived polysaccharide which is excellent at reducing surface tension.

The formulation brings a range of altered characteristics which are seen as beneficial for the user. It is less sensitive to cold and hot conditions. It stops photosynthesis within three days of application but this will not be visible. It is excellent in hard water situations, which is a problem for many other formulations. It is rainfast within one hour and has a six-hour cultivation interval when targeting annual weeds, but this is two days where scutch is the target. The Flex formulation is also said to increase average droplet size and so reduce the risk of drift.

Reduced drift potential

Speaking at the launch, Manda Sansom of Monsanto said that the surfactant systems used in pesticides alter the droplet profile of nozzles relative to their ratings based on water. She said that oil-based products tend to produce larger droplets than water through the same nozzle while many glyphosate surfactant formulations produce a smaller droplet than water, making the spray more prone to drift.

However, the Flex formulation behaves very similar to water and this provides more nozzle flexibility, Sansom said. It also makes the product more suited to the standard flat fan nozzle choices used by farmers and claims to reduce driftable droplets by 33% due to formulation alone.

Application rates

Because of the higher glyphosate concentration, the application rates for Roundup Flex are lower. The recommended rates for different target situations are shown in Table 1.

New Innovations

Also speaking at the launch Patrick O’Reilly of Monsanto briefly outlined some of the new technology directions being pursued by the company. This obviously included plant genetics using GM to target drought tolerance and fertilizer use efficiency in particular. They are also looking at dicamba-tolerant oilseed rape.

Further away is herbicide tolerance and stress tolerance in new wheat varieties, as are bio-control systems for integrated crop management. Patrick also spoke about ‘Biodirect’, a new science concept to use natural agents to help control problems with the theoretical potential to flip ‘resistant’ to ‘susceptible’ to aid the current armoury.