Agri Innovations
Sefina Insecticide Helping Battle Sugarcane Aphids in Forage Sorghum
Mon, 19 Jul 2021 05:22:06 CDT
Last October, BASF's Sefina Insecticide received EPA approval in sorghum which allows growers a new mode of action class to control their most troublesome aphid pest. Growers now have access early this season to help manage sugarcane aphids in their crop. Sefina insecticide's unique mode of action from the pyropene chemistry class (Group 9D) works by moving through the leaf to control piercing-sucking insects. Sefina is tough on pest and gentle on beneficials and is also not a restricted use pesticide.
Sefina was already approved for a variety of other crops- including cotton and soybeans, but adding sorghum to the label was significant as it offers that management option for the sugarcane aphid.
Radio Oklahoma Ag Network's Ron Hays talked with Adam Hixson, a BASF Technical Service Representative for Oklahoma and parts of Texas, about the how the sorghum industry has worked to develop tolerance to sugarcane aphids- and that the industry has had success in breeding tolerance into grain sorghum lines. However, forage sorghums are, by and large, not tolerant to the sugarcane aphid, and Sefina is a new weapn for producers growing forage sorghums here in 2021.
Hixson says that the aphid ingests the insecticide and "once it's in their body, it works extremely quickly- within minutes- ten to fifteen minutes- they become disoriented and they remove their mouth from the leaf surface and they are not causing any more damage within minutes of exposure to Sefina. It may take a couple of days before they either fall off the leaf or they actually dry up and die so they starve to death which is how to describe how they actually die."
Hixson and Hays also talked about what he is currently seeing in the field regarding sugarcane aphids and also provide direction to growers how to manage aphids populations if they currently have them or how to prepare and scout for aphids. He says being proactive when scouting your fields for aphids- adding you need to get into the field- check on the underside of the leaves because the aphids love to hide- if you miss them early- population numbers can rapidly increase and will quickly reach threshold numbers where a response by a producer will be needed to keep from losing yield potential because of the intruders.
Listen to the full conversation between Ron Hays and Adam Hixson by clicking on the LISTEN BAR below.
You can learn more about Sefina from BASF by clicking here.
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