News

Enlist corn trait approved in China

China has approved the Enlist corn trait by Dow AgroSciences for import which will be available to farmers in the 2018 growing season.

Iowa farmer Steve Bireline tells Brownfield last year he had the opportunity to plant a 30 acre test plot and was very impressed with the weed control results, “We’re starting to show a lot of water hemp resistant weeds, marestail, all this stuff.  It’s just amazing what it did and you could see how it was working within two hours after I applied it.”

Bireline says after his results last year he thought China would have approved the traits at the beginning of this year. “Whenever we started planting in 2017, I kept waiting for Enlist to be approved because I wanted to plant Enlist corn because I figured that’s what get approved first.”

He says the Enlist herbicide has the potential to be as effective as Roundup Ready when it first entered the market decades ago. The trait approval comes as part of the U.S. and China’s 100 Day action plan to improve relations between the two countries. Enlist Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans and Enlist E3 soybeans are currently awaiting final import approvals from China and the European Union.

AUDIO: Interview with Steve Bireline