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Tim..swIL
Posted 6/26/2006 01:10 (#22027 - in reply to #21936)
Subject: What is Herculex?



Freeburg, IL
Dave,

I'll give you my best shot on this. First off, I'm going to make an assumption that you have planted or are at least familiar with corn borer or "Bt" corn.

Since about 1997 farmers have been planting corn borer protected corn. In the early days we were planting either the YieldGard corn borer (Monsanto) event or the Maximizer corn borer (Ciba) event. I'm not sure what happened to the Maximizer event, but it faded from the marketplace. Since the mid to late 90s, if you planted "Bt" corn, as is generically was dubbed, you planted YieldGard corn borer Bt.

Today, if you are looking for corn borer protection, you have three choices from three suppliers:
  • YieldGard Corn Borer from Monsanto
  • Herculex I corn borer from Dow
  • Agrisure Corn Borer from Syngenta

    Now I get a little shaky on breeding, but I do know that Syngenta and Dow used the Liberty gene as a marker with their traits. So, by default, if you buy a bag of Herculex corn borer from XYZ seed company or a bag of Agrisure Corn Borer from XYZ seed company, by default you are going to have the option to spray Liberty herbicide over the top without killing the corn. There is no technology charge, that I know of, for the Liberty tolerance or Liberty Link hybrid (as it is more commonly called).

    When Liberty Link hybrids originally came out, they were associated with yield drag, but in the 10 years since Liberty Link hybrids have been around, the yield drag has been eliminated from the data I have seen. I'm sure you can find several farmers on this board that successfully use Liberty Link hybrids in their operation and would agree that yield drag no longer occurs.

    So with these traits, what do you achieve in terms of controlling insects?
    YieldGard
  • European corn borer
  • Southwestern corn borer

    Herculex I/LL
  • European corn borer
  • Southwestern corn borer
  • Western bean cutworm
  • Fall army worm
  • Black cutworm

    Agrisure CB/LL
  • European corn borer
  • Southwestern corn borer
  • Corn earworm

    From my experience with Poncho 250 and 1250 over the past few years I have not had to spray for any secondary pest (I'm not calling corn rootworms a secondary pest). Specifically the cutworm control has been excellent. However, cutworms in one county northeast of me this spring exceeded economic thresholds in corn. From direct conversations with a farmer who did spray for cutworms, the problem was not an issue of the seed applied insecticide working, but the shear number of cutworms in the field. He did not find successive plants cut (meaning, a cutworm fed on a plant, got sick, and died). Now, I'm sure there are those that have had seed applied insecticides fail to properly control cutworms.

    So, to summarize, if you have a perennial problem with cutworms, perhaps you should look at purchasing Herculex I corn to provide control of cutworms. The only downside is that Herculex is typically a little more expensive than the other two.

    Some more info on Liberty can be found here:
    http://www.libertylinkhybrids.com/productinfo.html

    Sorry to be so long winded.

    Here are two quick links that explain the characteristics and benefits of planting Herculex I and YieldGard Corn Borer:
    http://www.wyffels.com/pages/herculex_01.html
    http://www.wyffels.com/pages/corn_borer_01.html

    Edited by Tim..swIL 6/26/2006 01:12
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