Valent U.S.A. Corporation and Monsanto Company will expand their long-standing collaboration in Roundup Ready PLUS Weed Management Solutions with new cash-back incentives to help growers protect their herbicide investment in the 2013 season for soybeans.

New for this year, soybean growers who use Fierce Herbicide—Valent’s newest powerful residual product which was recently registered on soybeans—will receive $3 per acre cash back to manage weeds and protect their yield. Fierce joins other Valent products Valor Herbicide, Valor XLT Soybean Herbicide, Gangster Herbicide, Cobra Herbicide and Select Max Herbicide with Inside Technology, all of which are already part of Roundup Ready PLUS incentives for soybeans.

Valent Brand Manager Trey Soud said the expansion of Roundup Ready PLUS reinforces the two companies’ ongoing commitment to helping growers safeguard their weed control investments by providing the best performing product recommendations and incentives to improve weed management.

“Residuals are becoming the standard practice for growers because of the expansion of glyphosate resistant weeds. Growers need a product that that is going to provide the most consistent, longest-lasting and broadest-spectrum control of weeds. Growers can be confident that Fierce will deliver these benefits and will perform in fields that have heavy weed pressure or resistant weeds,” Soud said. “And for several years, growers have been able to use their most frequent go-to residuals, namely Valor, Valor XLT and Gangster, as part of Roundup Ready PLUS. By adding Fierce—which showed as much as two weeks’ longer consistent control of tough weeds over competitors in multiple trials over two years—growers have numerous options for a solid weed management approach.”

“Farmers understand the importance of taking a proactive approach to weed control to protect their yield,” said Chris Reat, Monsanto’s Roundup Ready PLUS Marketing Manager. “That’s why we are continuing to see strong adoption of the Roundup Ready PLUS platform, and farmers who are following the recommendations are reporting improved weed control and yield on their operations.”

Reat said that according to Monsanto’s market research, since 2010, the percentage of soybean acres treated with residual herbicides grew from 33 percent to 46 percent in 2012.  For cotton, the growth nearly doubled – from 43 percent to 80 percent.

Monsanto and Valent have partnered in Roundup Ready PLUS to offer cash-back incentives to growers that choose an eligible brand of herbicide in Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield Soybeans or Roundup Ready Soybeans. Under the platform, growers who use the Valent residual herbicides and Roundup PowerMAX or Roundup WeatherMAX herbicides will receive $3 per acre. Growers applying both fall and spring residual applications of the Valent products will be eligible for $6 per acre for the year.