Today we'll sort through the mess of herbicide names and help you determine what products they really contain. We'll focus on soil applied corn herbicides. Perhaps the one that's getting the most attention this spring is a product called Lumax. Lumax is a new name, but it's ingredients have all been on the market individually. Lumax contains Dual II Magnum, Callisto, and Atrazine.

Syngenta has combined them in an attempt to find a soil applied herbicide that would control nearly every weed so you wouldn't have to come back with a post-emerge application to clean up escapes. They've come as close as anyone to reach this goal, however, there is no perfect herbicide out there. There will be a few weeds that get through Lumax's protection. The ingredients are as follows.

In the full 3 quart use rate, there will be around 2.2 pounds of Dual II Magnum, 6.4 ounces of Callisto, and .75 pound of atrazine. If you've used Callisto in the past, you may remember that the normal use rate of Callisto post-emerge is only 3 ounces. Syngenta has put MORE than a double rate of Callisto into Lumax in an effort to enhance its broadleaf control. It's the old adage, if a little works good then a little more would work even better. Obviously, the contact activity of Callisto works much better at killing broadleaves than the soil activity.

The other part of this combination to note is the amount of atrazine it contains. We prefer to see atrazine used post-emerge for a large number of reasons, and .75 pound is just too much for us in a corn and soybean rotation, especially in drier years or in higher pH areas of fields. Syngenta also has a complimentary product to Lumax without the atrazine called Camix. This product offers a no-atrazine version which may be a better choice in some rotations. Camix contains 2.2 pounds of Dual II Magnum and 6.4 ounces of Callisto just like Lumax.

Another product garnering a great deal of attention this spring is called Cinch. Finally, DuPont has their own soil applied grass control herbicide. They've cornered the post-emerge grass control market for years owning Accent and its many derivatives, and they've been trying to develop their own soil applied herbicide for a long time.

This year, DuPont decided to simply purchase existing chemistry from one of their manufacturing counterparts, Syngenta. The herbicide they bought was Dual II Magnum. DuPont's trade name for this product will be Cinch.

Cinch will be exactly the same as Dual II Magnum in terms of use rate and product quality. The only difference between the two will be your financing options. If you'd like to finance through DuPont and Pioneer's TruChoice program, then Cinch will be your option. If you plan to use Syngenta and NK Seed's financing program, you'll be able to with Dual II Magnum. Either way, they will be very similar in up front pricing so the financing will be the only real difference.

As you may have guessed, it isn't always so easy to learn the whole story with herbicides and name changes. This deal between DuPont and Syngenta gets a little more complicated because there was more to it than just Dual II Magnum. DuPont also purchased the rights to market products very similar to the Bicep II Magnum line.

Bicep II is simply a combination of Dual II Magnum and atrazine. It also comes in a "Lite" version which contains less atrazine than the original. DuPont's Cinch family will have Cinch ATZ and Cinch ATZ Lite. Cinch ATZ at the 2.6 quart use rate will combine 1.6 pints of Dual II Magnum with 2 pounds of atrazine. The Lite version at 1.9 quarts will mix 1.6 pints of Dual II Magnum with 1.3 pounds of atrazine.

Another "new" atrazine combo product is Keystone. Dow is making a big push for this product in 2003. Keystone is a premix of Surpass and atrazine. At the 2.8 quart use rate, Keystone will contain 2.6 pints of Surpass and 1.6 pounds of Atrazine. Keystone LA will also be available and is just the lower atrazine version.

Monsanto is also in the combination product business and has a couple choices for you as well. Their newest release is called Degree. Degree is a micro-encapsulated version of Harness. The theory behind this process is to have a slower release of herbicide to extend its window of weed control later into the summer. The no-till market in the eastern corn belt has been the primary target for this technology, although conventional till farmers have used it as well.

In the western cornbelt where there is less rainfall, farmers haven't seen the additional control and aren't as likely to pay the extra cost. Plus, Degree has a much higher use rate than straight Harness. In the 4.4 pint use rate of Degree, there is approximately 2.5 pints of Harness.

There is an atrazine premix of Degree called Degree Extra. At 3 quarts, Degree Extra is a micro-encapsulated version with 2.3 pints of Harness and one pound of Atrazine. If you'd like the regular Harness in an atrazine premix, you have two choices there as well. In fact, this is one of the trickier things we'll discuss today. There is a product called Harness Extra 5.6 and also one called Harness Extra 6.0. The 5.6 version at 2.75 quarts contains 2.43 pints of Harness 7E and 1.71 pounds of Atrazine. The 6.0 version at 2 quarts combines 2.45 pints of Harness 7E with .85 pounds of Atrazine. All of a sudden, the products that were simply called Lite sound so much easier to understand.

Finally, there is Epic. For states where this product is labeled, Epic combines Balance with Define. At the 12 ounce use rate of Epic, there is 9.7 ounces of Define and 1.6 ounces of Balance.

There were quite a few mystery herbicides that we unmasked today, so we'll give you a quick review of the products we discussed. Camix contains Dual II Magnum and Callisto. Lumax is just Camix plus atrazine.

Cinch is DuPont's version of Dual II Magnum, and Cinch ATZ and Cinch ATZ Lite are the atrazine premixes.

Keystone is also an atrazine premix. It contains Surpass and atrazine. Keystone LA is similar, but contains less atrazine.

Degree is micro-encapsulated Harness, and Degree Extra is the atrazine premix. Harness Extra is Harness plus Atrazine available in either the original 5.6 version or the lower atrazine 6.0 version.

Finally Epic is a combination of Define and Balance.