It has been several years since I’ve added anything to the Herbicide Ad Hall of Shame, but I feel DuPont’s sales sheet for Fexapan warrants inclusion. At a time when nearly everyone realizes we are painting ourselves into a corner with herbicide resistance, it is disheartening to see a promotion claiming that a product is the answer to resistant weeds.
It also seems odd that the sheet proclaims ‘Simple and effective weed control’, but the majority of the information relates to label restrictions designed to minimize off-target movement of dicamba. Anyone who has read the labels of the new dicamba products (Engenia, FeXapan with VaporGrip Technology, and Xtendimax with VaporGrip Technology) realizes interpreting and implementing these restrictions is far from simple.
The full sales sheet can be downloaded here: fexapan_sales_sheet.pdf
Those who remember the folk revival of the 1950-60’s might remember the title of this article as a refrain in Pete Seeger’s war protest song “Where have all the flowers gone?” The author does not intend to suggest the use of new dicamba products on Xtend soybeans will result in wide-scale injury to the landscape.
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- Retired Weed Scientist and Professor of Agronomy