When it comes to new herbicides the product pipeline is not exactly bursting with new chemistry.
This trend toward fewer new crop protection chemistries has created opportunities for a company like ADAMA Canada, which focuses its research on innovating and reformulating existing products to enhance performance and make them better. In this interview, from Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show, ADAMA area business manager Drew Thompson shares how the company applies this strategy to develop products.
When it comes to insecticides, Thompson looks at the company’s Silencer insecticide. It includes the highly effective active lambda-cyhalothrin, but comes with a change in formulation that makes the product more user-friendly.
Highly-effective products using the active have been associated with heavy odours during handling and application. Thompson notes that this odour is not linked to the active ingredient, but rather the petroleum distillate used in the formulation. ADAMA reformulated the product, replacing the petroleum with vegetable oil, to address the odour issue while delivering the same efficacy and control. (Story continues after the video.)
In the video, Thompson also shares how ADAMA used a similar approach to develop a new herbicide product called Safacyn, currently awaiting registration. It uses the active ingredient saflufenacil, used by many growers across Canada for burndowns, as a pre-harvest desiccant and in post harvest operations. In this case, the ADAMA reformulation has added more flexibility, allowing saflufenacil to be used with a wider range of surfactants, while still delivering the same level of control
Safacyn is currently under review for registration under the Pest Control Products Act. It cannot be manufactured, imported, distributed, or used in Canada at this time except for the purpose of conducting research under the Pest Control Products Regulations.
Click here for more coverage of Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show.
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