By Jennifer Dorsett
Field Editor

Bayer AG announced earlier this week that the European Commission (EU) approved the company’s XtendFlex soybean technology for food, animal feed, import and processing, paving the way for Bayer to launch XtendFlex soybeans in the U.S. and Canada in 2021.

“XtendFlex soybeans will be Bayer’s second major product launch in soybeans in the last five years,” President of Bayer Crop Science North America Lisa Safarian said in a press release. “The upcoming launch in 2021 highlights the strength of the Bayer soybean pipeline, as well as the investment that Bayer continues to make in our soybean portfolio and the Roundup Ready Xtend Crop System.”

The latest soybean technology builds on existing Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybean crops that tolerate glyphosate and dicamba application with the added benefit of glufosinate tolerance.

Bayer noted XtendFlex soybeans provide growers with additional flexibility in managing hard-to-control and herbicide-resistant weeds.

Approval by the EU represented a final hurdle in bringing the technology to market. Bayer will launch the technology in the U.S. and Canada, and the company expects to see 20 million acres of soybeans planted in North America next year.

Texas farmers planted 100,000 acres of the crop last year, which was only about half of the soybeans planted in the state in 2018.

At the time, economists pegged the decrease in acreage as a result of continued trade tensions with China. But this year’s new-crop sales analysis point to a return to bigger numbers and better prices in the coming years, fueling farmer optimism.

“We’ve seen great demand for XtendFlex soybeans from our customers,” Lisa Streck, Bayer soybean launch lead, said. “Based on that demand, we’ve developed a supply plan to meet the market demand in 2021, across all maturities, Bayer brands and licensees. We expect the launch of XtendFlex to match the launch scale of Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans, which were planted on 20 million acres in their first year of commercial availability. This technology offers outstanding yield potential and weed control flexibility that will benefit soybean farmers across the U.S.”

Visit http://RoundupReadyXtend.com to learn more about XtendFlex soybeans,