Bayer has confirmed that it is fully committed to the the application of integrated weed-management principles, providing stewardship advice and supporting responsible use of herbicides as part of this solution.
The business is also bringing innovation to the market to help growers in their long-term, weed-management strategy.
According to Bayer, the company has been particularly active in encouraging advisors and growers to use different modes of action and not to depend on one single treatment.
Rather, it’s a case of using sequential treatments where these difficult and potentially resistant grass-weed challenges exist i.e. autumn residual followed by early spring contact.
Liam Condon, president of Bayer’s Crop Science Division, commented:
“A diversity of approaches is key to ensuring a sustainable intensification of agriculture for this purpose.
Research and development
“Bayer currently invests, annually, more than €1 billion in crop-science research and development with a strong focus on our integrated toolbox, combining chemical and biological crop-protection products with modern breeding technologies and trait research.”
He added:
“Science and modern technologies such as digital farming play a vital role in shaping the future of farming.
“Digital farming solutions can help growers gain a better understanding of what’s going on in their fields and allow them to make better and faster decisions.
“Precise, real-time crop-monitoring data and soil-health analyses are examples that can enhance decision making and help ensure a higher focus on sustainability.
“We are excited about the possibilities such new technologies deliver in the fight against resistant weeds.”
This week has also seen confirmation that Bayer is expanding its digital field-data management platform – now being used on more than 180 million subscribed acres across 23 countries.
The connectivity from these acres, including logging information from planters, sprayers and combines, is helping farmers make data-driven decisions and optimize yield while lowering the environmental footprint of their farming operations.
The digital platform is also expected to enable a simple, robust, scalable process to measure, verify and report on practices that sequester carbon.
Carbon farming
In the first year of its carbon initiative, Bayer enrolled more than 2,500 users on farming trials across the US and Brazil.
“With carbon markets worth more than $200 billion annually, we are leading the way in helping make carbon farming a reality through our global Carbon Initiative,” added Condon.
“By incentivising farmers to adopt climate smart practices, as well as future products that yield more and sequester more carbon, we are creating new value opportunities for the farmer and our company.”