Published on 27/07/2022
Marketing manager Glen Surgenor says given the on-going challenges with global sea shipping, the company chose to air freight its first consignment from the new manufacturing source in the Northern Hemisphere to ensure it was ready for the start of the spring weed control season.
And he’s expecting no shortage of demand after a disrupted and unusual growing season.
Prolonged dry conditions which ran late into autumn have left many North Island pastures open to weed infestation, and limited farmers’ ability to clean them up before winter.
“Then once it rained, soils were warm enough that growth continued, right across the country. In June, we would typically be in the middle of the winter weed spray season, but we were still selling a lot of brushkiller-type products that would have normally gone on in summer and autumn.”
Tordon 2G Gold was previously made at Corteva’s Taranaki plant. When that closed last year, manufacturing for both the NZ and Australian markets was moved to the United States.
One benefit of the change has been to packaging, Surgenor says.
“Both the 5 kg and 20 kg packs are now fully recyclable through Agrecovery. We weren’t able to source the right HDPE plastic containers here in NZ when we were manufacturing locally. But when we moved manufacturing offshore, we were able to resolve this.”
Bringing the existing overseas facility up to spec for NZ and Australian granule requirements took several months, but was an important investment in the local market, he says.
“As a pasture maintenance tool, particularly for dairy farmers, Tordon 2G Gold is widely used and well-regarded, not least because it’s so convenient. We were committed to ensuring it remained available to farmers here, hence taking the time to get production set up and running smoothly.”
Many farmers switched to Tordon Pasture-Boss while the granules were temporarily out of stock, and are expected to return to 2G once it’s back on the shelf.
“They really appreciate the convenience of the granule formulation for keeping their pastures clean. It’s so easy to carry on the bike or in the ute, and it only takes a few seconds to apply when they see broadleaf or brushweeds that shouldn’t be there.”
Tordon 2G Gold contains picloram and aminopyralid. It’s grass friendly, and controls many hard-to-kill perennial weeds like ragwort, thistles, oxeye daisy and giant butte-cup as well as broom, gorse, tutsan, sweetbriar and blackberry.
For more detail contact your Corteva Agriscience territory sales manager.