01/02/06 Axial gets EPA approval

Syngenta Crop Protection recently announced its new cereal grains herbicide Axial had received a registration from the Environmental Protection Agency. The grass weed herbicide will be available for the 2006 growing season and is registered on winter wheat, spring wheat, and barley, but not on durum wheat. Of special interest to Idaho cereal grain growers is control of grassy weeds like Italian ryegrass, wild oats and wind grass, though it also controls several others. Axial is a Group 1 herbicide but based on new chemistry and is called a "den" for Pinoxaden. Syngenta Cereal Crops Products Manager Brent Rockers says this means Axial could be effective against some herbicide resistant biotypes. ROCKERS - "Our research trials show that where we have grasses in fields that may be showing resistance to one, or two of the Group 1 product, that this product is working." Syngenta sales representative Ric Wesselman says Axial does three things. WESSELMAN - "The size of the crop. The window on the crop. The size of the grasses and not just one grass, across all grasses there is a wide window there. And crop safety and performance. This is a pretty quick product." Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott