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Roundup Ready® Flex Technology Cited For "Ease of Management" and Time Savings
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (January 8, 2008) – When you talk to cotton growers about what they like best about Roundup Ready® Flex cotton, they will tell you that the technology has freed them up to do other things, whether it’s spending more time managing other crops or spending more time with family and loved ones. Sometimes, it’s both.
“The Roundup Ready Flex technology has essentially given me my weekends back,” says Joey Stephenson, who farms cotton, soybeans, wheat and corn near Seaboard, North Carolina, in Northampton County. “The ease of management for this system is its biggest plus, in my opinion.”
“We’ve been able to almost eliminate our layby herbicide applications,” Stephenson explains. “That application is a slow and time-consuming process. We can move over the top of the cotton much faster, and it’s a big time saver.”
The time savings and flexibility enable Stephenson to schedule work in advance and not be limited by the original Roundup Ready cotton’s four-leaf stage limitation for over-the-top treatments. “This helps keep both the wife and my labor force happy,” he says.
Out in the dusty and windblown High Plains of west Texas, cotton grower Joe Stokes also appreciates the value of the Roundup Ready Flex cotton technology. “It’s just an excellent weed-control program,” says Stokes, who operates Stokes Farms near Cotton Center in Hale County, Texas. “The flexibility on when to make the over-the-top glyphosate applications is a big plus around here, given the wind we have to deal with.”
The Roundup Ready Flex cotton system, Stokes says, frees up a lot of time that he can use to spend time with his family and more closely manage his other crops besides cotton. The flexibility for over-the top herbicide applications was especially appreciated in 2007.
Paul Callaghan, cotton traits marketing manager for Monsanto, says surveys
of Roundup Ready Flex cotton growers strongly indicate that the time savings
realized from the technology are significant. “Some of the growers are
choosing to use that saved time to better manage other crops such as rice,
corn or soybeans,” he explains. “Other growers are plowing that
saved time into more personal pursuits, such as time with family and friends,
fishing trips and other recreation. With a lot of our customers, the time savings
is an important issue. Cotton growers are not used to having so much time freed
up where weed control is concerned.”
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Gin by-products of cotton containing Monsanto’s biotech traits, including cottonseed for feed uses, are fully approved for export to Canada, Japan, Mexico and South Korea. Cottonseed containing Monsanto traits may not be exported for the purpose of planting without a license from Monsanto.
Always read and follow pesticide label directions. Roundup Ready® crops contain genes that confer tolerance to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup agricultural herbicides. Roundup® agricultural herbicides will kill crops that are not glyphosate tolerant. Growers should be sure that the glyphosate product used in these applications over Roundup Ready Flex cotton has been tested for that use so as to reduce the risk of leaf damage. See the Roundup Ready Flex Technical Use Guide for details. Roundup® and Roundup Ready® are registered trademarks of Monsanto Technology LLC. ©2008 Monsanto Company
