New technology helps graziers reduce weeds and expand grass
New technology is coming for pasture managers.
These four products from Corteva Agriscience are in the marketplace now or will be soon.
MezaVue
First available in 2019, MezaVue is for Southwestern ranchers plagued by prickly pear, the ground-hugging cactus that can expand coverage by 25% to 30% per year and crowd out pasture grasses. Most cattle won’t even get close to it.
The speed with which MezaVue can kill is its biggest advantage, says Damon Palmer, Corteva’s business leader for pasture and land management. Previously, Tordon was a standard for prickly pear, but it could take a year to show results.
MezaVue will wither plants in about four months. It has three active ingredients, none of them new, but never combined before. They absorb more thoroughly, Palmer says. MezaVue can be applied aerially or used to spot-spray individual plants.
DuraCor
The EPA registered this herbicide for the 2020 season.
DuraCor features Rinskor, which Corteva claims is the first new active ingredient for broadleaf weed control in pastures in 15 years. It’s considered a next-generation herbicide with an improved environmental profile.
This product fits a broad geography. Its main advantage is a broader weed spectrum than previous products.
“GrazonNext, an older standby, controls about 100 weed species,” Palmer says. “DuraCor takes that up to about 140.”
They include common pasture weeds such as thistles, ragweed, horsenettle, and pigweed, and additional weeds like wild carrot, plantain, poison hemlock, Canada thistle, and tall ironweed.
“For some of those weeds, it can also lead to better cattle health,” Palmer says
DuraCor also provides residual weed control. It can be applied in liquid form as part of a fertilizer mix. “That’s a trend, and a real positive advantage for reducing application trips,” he says.
LandVisor
This digital tool takes some of the tools of precision agriculture, now commonplace for row crops, into pasture and rangeland management.
Using sophisticated imagery combined with GIS technology and field data collection, along with management advice from a Corteva consultant, LandVisor shows the density and growth progress of desirable and undesirable plant species in a pasture.
Combined with weather and other data, it will determine where and when herbicides will be most beneficial, then track progress.
Palmer says the value of LandVisor is in overall better weed control. “Research shows that for each pound of weeds controlled in a pasture, 1 to 1.5 pounds of forage-quality grass can be produced.”
In 2020, LandVisor became available to ranchers in the Southwest to manage invasive honey mesquite. Corteva plans to expand it across the U.S. in the coming years. Pricing may be factored into herbicide applicator fees.
ProClova
This future product will control pasture weeds but not kill some desirable pasture legumes like white clover and annual lespedeza.
ProClova has been submitted to EPA for registration, and Corteva anticipates its approval in 2022.
Testing shows ProClova controls broadleaf weeds such as ironweed, cocklebur, buttercup, thistles, ragweeds, and poison hemlock.
Corteva says it will provide an effective option for flexible hay marketing, crop rotation, and CRP seedings where a nonresidual option is desired. ProClova should have no grazing restrictions, and minimal manure or haying restrictions.
Gloss