Since you were probably expecting to be reading about the new XtendFlex soybeans where you have tolerance to dicamba (XtendiMax/Engenia/FeXapan), glyphosate (Roundup), and glufosinate (Liberty); I will have to disappoint you a little. As of today when I’m writing this article, the European Union has yet to approve this trait, so it’s not labeled for use in the United States. Further, the dicamba products I mentioned are going through a re-registration process that I’d like to clarify in layman’s terms.

These products were initially labeled only until December of 2020 before there were any lawsuits against them. This is a planned re-registration with the EPA for those products and from what I hear it is going well enough to expect they are very likely to get labeled again for use in 2021. As for XtendFlex varieties, there are small supplies of varieties as early as Group 0 up to Group 6 available to order right now. We anticipate the market quickly transitioning from Xtend to XtendFlex as more varieties come out. The ability to utilize Liberty for weed control is such a huge benefit, so XtendFlex is definitely the future.

While excluders have been available for a number of years in later maturities, we are excited to now have them in early-maturing soybeans, as well.
Zinesto Z0601E, Z1001E, and Z1900E (Group 0.6, 1.0, & 1.9) all have the SALT EXCLUDER designation.

Regular soybeans are all considered to be “salt includers” because when they take in salt or chloride, it moves right to the top portion of the plant where the newest growth is. The result is yellowing, stunting, and reduced yields. Here’s where salt “excluders” come in. Excluders contain a gene that allows them to contain the chloride in the roots rather than translocating it to the actively growing nodes on the plant. The result is greatly improved performance in the presence of chlorides.

Salt excluders often look great in iron deficiency chlorosis (IDC) fields, but that’s not always the case. Yellow areas in fields could be caused by salts building up in the soil but could also be due to things excluders cannot block out. Salt excluders are great in fields with chlorides, but they are still susceptible to other problems such as sodium damage in sodic soils. Just like with the includers, sodium moves right to the newest growth in excluders, causing yield loss and even plant mortality in extreme situations. Excluders are just one of the improvements in the Enlist lineup. Compared to just last spring, there are many more Enlist varieties to choose from, as well as improvements in white mold and SDS tolerance.

Iron deficiency chlorosis in soybeans. Several Enlist E3 soybeans available for 2021 have the salt excluder gene, which makes soybeans more able to handle chloride salt issues.

White mold has been a big problem in soybean fields across the country in recent years. New varieties of Enlist E3 soybeans have improved tolerance to white mold.