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The Branded Fungicides Advantage

July 19, 2017

You may be tempted to treat your soybean fields with a generic fungicide versus a name-brand product to save on input costs. While the cost is worth considering, return on investment is the more important factor of the equation.

What you may not realize is that many generic fungicides have slightly different formulations and can sometimes be less concentrated than name-brands, which makes all the difference in the product’s efficacy and impact on yield.

Researchers with the University of Nebraska highlight some of the potential benefits you may receive from using a brand-name fungicide over a generic:

  • Quality of the product
  • Efficacy of the product
  • Dealer and manufacturer service
  • Ease of mixing
  • Product confidence

My experience in developing fungicides has taught me that formulation chemistry is both a science and an art, and Syngenta does it better than anybody else. Here’s what I mean:

  • Most active ingredients don’t like water. So we can add a surfactant that makes them like water better.
  • Then they go to the bottom (still not good). So we add suspension agents to keep the active ingredients distributed in the mix.
  • Water freezes and formulations have water so we have to add antifreezes.
  • Bacteria like to eat fungicidal active ingredients so we add anti-microbials.
  • Formulations with all these things added tend to foam, so we add anti-foams.
  • What happens when it rains after you apply a generic fungicide? They wash off. That is why we build formulations that have better rain tenacity and disperse more effectively across leaves for better coverage.

You can see how it is a science and an art. Now, do you think generic companies do all of this? They do not.

Also, when you choose to use a single generic active ingredient – such as generic azoxystrobin to prevent frogeye leaf spot and other diseases – you miss out on the benefits of additional modes of action available in premium premixes. Syngenta offers Quadris Top® SBX fungicide, which contains the strobilurin ingredient, azoxystrobin, plus difenoconazole, part of the azole chemical class. These multiple modes of action have greater efficacy on diseases such as strobilurin-resistant frogeye leaf spot than generic azoxystrobin alone.

Contact your local Syngenta representative for more information about Quadris Top SBX and how to get the best return on investment from your fungicide each season.

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Submitted by Eric Tedford, technical fungicide lead

Syngenta hereby disclaims liability for third-party websites.

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