Commodity Classic in Orlando a couple of weeks ago set a new attendance record, drawing over 10,000 attendees. UPL, a worldwide agro-chemical company, asked many of those farmers that stopped by their booth what their biggest pain point was going into planting season. Many simply said, “weed control.”
“It’s a number of weeds, but on top of everybody’s mind is those amaranthus species,” says Chad Effertz, head of North American development for UPL.
He explains that their newest pre-emergent soybean herbicide, PREVIEW™ 2.1 SC, is tough on Palmer amaranth and waterhemp because of the two active ingredients: metribuzin and sulfentrazone.
Effertz says combining those two ingredients has proven difficult in the past because of their responsiveness to pH, but UPL figured it out.
“So, PREVIEW™ 2.1 SC is a liquid product at a nice use rate and a very easy to work with formulation, but it’s very unique in that the only way we can put that together is we created a coal crystal in our formulation. The beauty is that it affected how it responds to pH. Some people are concerned about soybean injury, etc., with those active ingredients. The beauty of PREVIEW™ in this coal crystal formulation is we have the best crop safety we’ve seen with those active ingredients because we don’t respond to pH so much in the soil.”
Effertz says UPL is not a readily known brand to a lot of farmers. They may know their products but don’t really know who is behind them. For Effertz, the strength of UPL is their basic manufacturing.
“Everybody knows about all the supply issues. It was very common for companies 10 years ago to go ‘asset light’ and not control their own destiny in manufacturing. UPL took a whole different approach and we’re very into building our own plants and even building all the precursors that go into building the product… So, through this whole supply issue and not getting access to materials, UPL really stood out as being able to deliver in that environment.”
Learn more about PREVIEW™ 2.1 SC and UPL by visiting their website.
