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Monsanto Reinforces Commitment To Product Stewardship

 Monsanto Company today announced it is taking steps to ensure best management practices are implemented for fields that were planted with the company's single-mode-of-action corn hybrids that contain western corn rootworm protection and that were affected by significant corn rootworm pressure during the 2011 season.

Farmers who continuously plant corn-on-corn with single-mode-of-action products have routinely faced pressure from high populations of rootworms for years, even prior to the introduction of insect-protection trait technologies. Today, there are geographical pockets of heavy rootworm infestation in areas where there's a long history of corn-on-corn plantings. In these areas, some farmers that use single mode of action approaches – either a soil-applied insecticide or trait technology – have seen that high rootworm populations can overwhelm the plants, leading to damage and some surviving insects.

Monsanto recommends for the 2012 planting season that fields that were planted with YieldGard VT Triple or Genuity VT Triple PRO hybrids and experienced greater than expected corn rootworm damage during the 2011 season, follow these best management practices, including:

• Switching to dual-mode-of-action Genuity SmartStax RIB Complete™ corn to manage and protect against insects on the affected field specifically. SmartStax corn is the only product on the market to offer dual modes of action for above- and below-ground insect protection, or

• Rotating to Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans or another crop if soybeans are not a suitable recommendation for that specific geography.

• Beyond these field-specific recommendations, we are also providing tailored local agronomic recommendations in combination with a soil or foliar applied insecticide for any fields planted to a single-mode-of-action technology in areas where high populations of rootworms were present during the 2011 season but where greater than expected corn rootworm damage was  not experienced.

• Monsanto agronomists and dealers will work with each affected farmer to implement the appropriate management practices for impacted fields and make recommendations for their entire farm. In addition third-party representatives will work with Monsanto seed dealers to educate and reinforce the recommendation of best management practices for corn rootworm control.

"In addition to Genuity SmartStax RIB Complete, Monsanto's YieldGard VT Triple and Genuity VT Triple PRO corn rootworm products are exceptional technologies that are delivering strong insect protection against corn rootworms and higher yield potential than competitive single mode of action rootworm-protected trait offerings," said Ty Vaughn, corn product lead at Monsanto. "We're committed to providing farmers with the best management practices to ensure we can both work to support the long-term durability of these products."