Rock and Roll Agronomy

Small Grains Herbicide Product Review:

A Closer Look at “New” WideMatch M

By Jason Hanson
Certified Crop Advisor
jlhanson@agriliance.com

I had the opportunity to sit on a panel of retailers a couple of years ago and discuss some of Dow AgroSciences’ products and market trends. Those trends showed that Curtail use was declining as more pre-harvest glyphosate and Roundup Ready crops were being used. Starane use was increasing dramatically as kochia control was excellent. A number of us suggested that a pre-mix or combination of the two active ingredients of Curtail and Starane would be a good thing for the grower if the price was right.

Now lo and behold, the combination product discussed in that panel awhile back is being marketed this season as a new small grains herbicide called WideMatch M.

The reason for the co-pak is that due to the EPA registration process, Dow could bring WideMatch to the grower quicker than a pre-mix. Dow plans to offer WideMatch M as a pre-mix in the future, pending regulatory review and approval.

Quantity of the co-pak will be limited this season and WideMatch M will be non-returnable to the retailer. Keep in mind as well that while this is being marketed as a new herbicide product of sorts, it is not a new chemistry. This is the trend in current crop protection markets: either there is a pre-mix of existing chemistry, a co-pak of familiar products (as is the case of WideMatch M) or a change in the formulation of a different product you are used to using.

WideMatch M is new from the standpoint that the active ingredients are priced more competitively than if you wanted to do a tank mix of separate products.  WideMatch M is a combination of clopyralid/MCPA ester and fluroxypyr -- the active ingredients in Curtail  and Starane, both of which have their specific fits on targeted broadleaf weeds.  All are systemic products and have excellent crop safety for the labeled crops-wheat, durum, oats and barley.

The co-pak comes as a package of two products, WideMatch CM and Wide-Match S. The box you pick up this spring will have two 2.5 gallon containers of Wide-Match CM (the CM stands for Curtail M). There is also a 1.4 gallon container of WideMatch S which is the Starane portion of the co-pak. At labeled use rates, this co-pak this 75 lb box will treat 22.4 acres at the labeled rate. This rate delivers the equivalent of 1 pint per acre of MCPA-e, four ounces of Stinger per acre and a half a pint of Starane per acre. The package has a rainfast interval of six hours.

One nice feature of WideMatch M is that it can be tank-mixed with a wide variety of post emerge grass products, like Achieve, Discover, Discover NG, Everest and Puma. Neither the Curtail M nor Starane portions are antagonistic to grass control, so it has a nice fit for a one pass grass and broadleaf program.

Apply WideMatch M to the crop from the three-leaf stage to flag leaf emergence, and time application to weeds before they exceed four inches in height or diameter. For Canada thistle, apply after most of the basal leaves have emerged, but before budding.

Visual results are not immediate with the active ingredients of this systemic product, but rest assured, it will deliver a lethal blow to the weeds on the WideMatch M target list. Among the many weeds included in the control spectrum for this product are kochia, wild buckwheat, and Canada thistle. 

Wild mustard, pennycress, Russian thistle, field bindweed, and perennial sowthistle are key weeds that this product suppresses. Control means excellent weed kill can be expected when the product is used as labeled in a timely manner. Suppression, as Dow puts it, is “expressed as a reduction in weed competition (reduced population or vigor) as compared to untreated areas.”  That’s why you’d need to tank mix with other herbicides such as MCPA, 2-4-D, or Harmony GT to control particular weeds not covered by WideMatch M.

My personal opinion of the product is that it has a good fit for most acres of small grains. The ½ pint rate of Starane controls fairly large kochia, volunteer flax, common mallow, and is better on wild buckwheat than I used to give it credit for. Of course, one major hole Curtail M had was kochia, but this product as a co-pak covers each other’s misses fairly well.

A couple of weeds that I would still be careful would be lanceleaf sage and the pigweed species. Redroot pigweed has become a bigger problem and all the active ingredients in WideMatch M are OK, but not knockdown dead. A fast growing and competitive crop canopy helps to cover up small pigweed so they don’t become an issue. Most of these pigweed stay below the crop canopy, either go to seed or are taken care of with a pre-harvest application of glyphosate. The same thing happens with products that contain bromoxynil and MCPA-e like Bison, Bronate Advanced, and straight MCPA-e. I think that with even moderate pigweed, a little dash of Harmony Extra or Harmony GT is the cure.

Rotation restrictions limit a person from planting pea, lentil and potato 18 months after application of WideMatch M. And that goes for other garden plants like carrots, celery, lettuce, melons and tomatoes (so it’s not a good idea to use the product for cleaning up those tough weeds in the garden).

For complete label details (as a PDF), go to the web, www.cdms.net .  Click on the link “LABELS & MSDS” and type in WideMatch M under Ag/Crop Product. I would suggest discussing the product with your supplier because it has a fit on certain fields, weeds and tank-mixes. Give it a look; it’s the “newest” thing in small grain weed control.  

Hanson is a certified crop advisor near Devils Lake, N.D.