NEW ORLEANS, La. — Monsanto is gearing up for the largest introduction of a biotech trait in the history of agriculture.
The company expects growers in Canada and the United States to plant more than three million acres of its Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans this year.
Monsanto received Chinese import approval for the crop in February.
“We are pending a final approval in Europe,” said Miriam Paris, U.S. soybean marketing manager. “We have a really high level of confidence that’s going to come shortly.”
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The company is already shipping seed to U.S. growers who pre-ordered the product last fall to take advantage of price discounts.
It is not shipping seed to Canada yet because growers in Eastern Canada export their soybeans to the European Union.
“We’re waiting to ship until we have European approval, but we expect that to come soon,” Paris said in an interview at Commodity Classic 2016.
Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans are tolerant to glyphosate and dicamba.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has not approved the use of dicamba on of Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans, so growers south of the border will have to rely on Roundup for the time being.
Canadian regulators have ap-proved the use of dicamba on the new soybean, so Canadian growers will receive the full benefit of the new technology sooner than their American counterparts.
Canadian farmers will be able to apply Monsanto’s new dicamba product XtendiMax herbicide with VaporGrip technology, which is a low volatility formulation of the chemical.
Paris expects Roundup Ready 2 Xtend will be grown on most of the company’s soybean acres within the next five years.
sean.pratt@producer.com
