And if that’s not enough, Transform is user friendly, and fast acting with extended control lasting three weeks, a key benefit

given aphids’ mobility and ability to reproduce very rapidly.
 

Dow AgroSciences NZ marketing manager Nick Koch says it’s taken over 10 years and $270 million of R&D to create Transform

but arable merchants at last month’s launch meetings in Canterbury only needed a few minutes to realise the market implications of the new product, which is registered to control cereal aphids in wheat.
 

“We’re not just talking about a new product, but new chemistry as well, and chemistry that is so novel it has been assigned its

own group. Everyone’s excited about Transform. It’s been a long time since a pipeline product like this has been made available to NZ growers.”
 

Featuring the new Isoclast active, Transform will help growers put paid to the spread of Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus (BYDV) and its associated costs with fewer spray applications and without compromising their increasingly popular IPM programmes, Koch says.
 

“Integrated pest management (IPM) has been a buzz phrase used in the industry for many years although it hasn’t been widely adopted. This has been largely due to the lack of selective chemistries available that are safe to key beneficial insects. “Beneficial insects naturally help to keep the aphid populations under control but when old chemistries such as synthetic pyrethroids are used the beneficials die and it can take quite some time for numbers to return.
 

“It’s great to be able to walk into a field that has been treated with Transform to see the beneficial insects still working.”
 

When this feature is combined with systemic activity and an extended control period, plus a kinder user profile, Transform

provides a very powerful package of benefits, Koch says.
 

“It’s one of those advances growers have been waiting for.”

Already selling into new season’s winter wheat crops for essential early aphid control, Transform is also in line for further

crop registration in the NZ arable market.
 

It’s been trialled in NZ conditions for several years, showing superior efficacy on aphids with very consistent results and

minimal performance variability, says Dow AgroSciences R&D manager Bernard Harris.
 

Widely adopted overseas on a diverse range of crops and pests, Transform is expected to meet an equally warm reception in the

NZ market, Nick Koch says.
 

For more detail contact your Dow AgroSciences territory manager.