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Glyphosate dominance grows in US cotton

Date:05-29-2008

The dominance of glyphosate as the leading herbicide used on US cotton crops continued to grow in 2007, according to the latest data from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Survey. Various forms of glyphosate were applied to 91% of the cotton area surveyed last year, compared with 76% when the crop was last examined by the NASS in 2005.
Herbicides were applied to 97% of the 10.2 million acres (4.1 million ha) of cotton planted in the 11 states surveyed in 2007. The overall volume of herbicides applied amounted to 26.2 million lbs (11,884 tonnes), compared with 25.7 million lbs in the nine states examined in 2005. After glyphosate, the next most popular cotton herbicides were trifluralin, diuron and pendimethalin. These four ais were also the most popular treatments in 2005 and 2003.
US cotton herbicide usage 2007
Herbicide
Area treated (%)
Volume (000 lbs)
glyphosate & salts1
91
17,311
trifluralin
29
2,763
diuron
26
1,325
pendimethalin
17
1,451
pyrithiobac-sodium
10
57
carfentrazone-ethyl
10
19
2,4-D & salts2
9
475
pyraflufen-ethyl
8
3
prometryn
7
640
dicamba & salts3
7
164
S-metolachlor
6
618
flumioxazin
6
41
fluometuron
4
277
MSMA
3
380
trifloxysulfuron-sodium
3
2
metolachlor
2
221
glufosinate-ammonium
2
77
fomesafen
2
48
Total4
97
26,214
1 includes isopropylamine and ammonium salts; 2 includes dimethylammonium salt and ethylhexyl ester; 3 includes sodium, dimethylammonium and diglycolamine salts; 4 includes others applied to 1% of area or less – crops may be receive multiple treatments..
Acephate, dicrotophos and aldicarb continued to be the most widely used insecticides on cotton. These three insecticides were also the most popular in 2005 and 2003, but the proportion of the crop treated with aldicarb has dropped over this period. Malathion was the fourth most popular insecticide in 2005, with 15% of the crop treated. However, only 5% of the cotton acreage was treated with malathion last year.
US cotton insecticide usage 2007
Insecticide
Area treated (%)
Volume (000 lbs)
acephate
26
2,368
dicrotophos
21
1,242
aldicarb
18
1,241
thiamethoxam
11
45
cyfluthrin
8
36
cypermethrin
7
52
imidacloprid
6
41
acetamiprid
6
26
malathion
5
1,890
lambda-cyhalothrin
5
21
novaluron
4
26
oxamyl
3
134
bifenthrin
3
36
zeta-cypermethrin
3
9
esfenvalerate
2
11
Total1
66
7,943
1 includes others applied to 1% of area or less – crops may receive multiple treatments.
Other active ingredients commonly applied to cotton were the plant growth regulators, ethephon, thidiazuron and mepiquat chloride. Over 8.8 million lbs of ethephon were applied to 69% of the area surveyed, some 275,000 lbs of thidiazuron were applied to 37% of the area and 208,000 lbs of mepiquat chloride were used on 35% of the crop.
The NASS also surveyed pesticide use on 288,000 acres of apples in seven states in 2007. Insecticides were used on 97% of the acreage, fungicides on 91% and herbicides on 61%. Insecticide applications totalled 7.5 million lbs, fungicides 4.7 million lbs and herbicides 487,000 lbs. These figures exclude the bio-insecticide, Bacillus thuringiensis, and other biologicals.
The most widely used insecticide was azinphos-methyl (applied to 62% of the area), followed by chlorpyrifos (59%), petroleum distillate (58%) and carbaryl (52%). The main fungicides used were mancozeb (37%), myclobutanil (36%), captan (34%) and sulfur (26%). The leading herbicides were glyphosate (45%), paraquat (12%) and simazine (10%).
* The USDA’s “Agricultural Chemical Usage 2007 Field Crops Summary” can be accessed at: http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/current/AgriChemUsFC/AgriChemUsFC-05-21-2008.pdf.
 
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