Sorting Through Biologicals
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
The entire crop input industry seems to be investing more and more money into biologicals. FMC Corporation biological subject matter expert Matthew Pie says they are trying to help growers better understand some of the nuances associated with these biological approaches.
Pie… “So you've got biopesticides, biostimulants, and now biofertilizers all coming to the forefront. All of FMCs products are biopesticides, so they've been registered with the EPA for their activity against pests. We can make those pesticidal claims because of that registration. A lot of your biostimulants and biofertilizers, there's various different sources. You know, they're not registered with the EPA, they're registered at the state level as soil amendments. So there's a lot of confusion with those products being able to come into the market so quickly and readily, and very low barriers to entry. So the grower has a lot to sort through. We're trying to simplify the message about what our products are and what they deliver.”
As just one example, Pie said FMC’s newest biological product is called Ethos Elite LFR.
Pie… “So this has two new biofungicidal strains and it's a premix with a insecticide bifenthrin. So you get the benefits of the insect control from the bifenthrin piece, and then you get soil disease suppression from the two biological strains and a little bit of plant vigor also associated with having that biological there.”
That’s Matthew Pie with FMC Corporation.
