21st February 2024
New authorisation offers additional herbicide options this spring
There is exciting news for cereal growers this spring as Sumir, a highly active ALS inhibitor herbicide, has received authorisation for joint application with a much wider range of products.
This authorisation increases the range of products with which Sumir can be used in joint application to include Boudha, Broadway Star, Dakota, Ergon, Hamlet, Hiatus, LAYA, Nautius, Savvy Premium or Spitfire, or with one of the products previously authorised on the Sumir label.
Manufactured by off-patent manufacturers Life Scientific, Sumir is a reverse engineered formulation of Boxer. It controls annual broad-leaved weeds in cereals such as cleavers, chickweed, mayweed and volunteer oilseed rape and is also used extensively for controlling volunteer beans in cereal crops.
Sumir contains florasulam, an ALS inhibitor herbicide (Herbicide Resistance Action Committee Mode of Action Group 2), a group which also includes the sulfonyl urea’s.
Sumir is the only ALS inhibitor herbicide to offer all of these products for use in joint application.
“ALS herbicides have been used as the main stay in cereal crops due to their efficacy and the broad spectrum of weeds controlled, even at larger growth stages, which will prove vital this spring as many crops haven’t received any previous herbicide applications due to the weather, so they offer a really useful option,” says Ruth Stanley, country manager for Life Scientific UK & Ireland.
She points out ALS products are only used in small doses due to their high levels of activity with stringent regulatory requirements on their use, especially when used in mixture or sequence with another ALS inhibitor herbicide in a joint application.
“Any joint applications must be approved by CRD and products, not active ingredients, must be specifically named on the label. Any joint application must comply with all directions for use or restrictions for each product label, and users must ensure that the products are authorised for use on the crop.”
Mrs Stanley adds that correct application is key to success. “Use the correct dosage, take care not to overlap or clean out spray equipment in the crop and overdose and always wash out with an approved tank cleaner after application.
“This recent authorisation reflects our approach in offering high quality off-patent crop protection products to market with the goal of providing customers with better options to meet their plant protection needs,” she says.
Sumir is commercially available through distribution partners, ProCam and Hutchinsons. For more information on Sumir, please visit see the Life Scientific website https://lifescientific.com/products/
Contacts Siafu PR, Niamh Tye, Tel: 07704631836, Email: niamh@siafu.biz Life Scientific, Ruth Stanley, Mobile: 07857 483193, Email: ruth.stanley@lifescientific.com
Who is Life Scientific?
· Life Scientific was established by Nicola Mitchell in 1995, and is headquartered at Belfield Office Park, adjacent to its original home on the UCD campus. The company, which has well established links with UCD and with Enterprise Ireland over many years, currently employs 80 people (including more than 30 scientists) and has an annual turnover of €60 million.
· Initially they were a product registration company providing contract services for multi-national and generic companies to gain new or support existing registrations.
· The company has a very strong scientific base and developed a particularly strong position in doing five batch analysis. They had a very good reputation in this area and even MNCs companies would get LS to undertake this work for them. A five batch analysis is required for any new active ingredient source/ supplier and all impurities have to be identified, described by some as ‘looking for a needle in a haystack’.
· In 2020 CEO Nicola Mitchell won the highly prestigious and acclaimed Irish 2020 EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
