RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC, August 11, 2010 – Kixor® herbicide technology has been the largest new herbicide product launch in two decades because it offers growers a new solution to address weed control issues. Launched in September 2009, the unique chemistry powers a family of products specifically designed to solve the toughest broadleaf weed challenges facing growers today.

“BASF recognized emerging trends in the marketplace and developed a product to meet growers’ need for a herbicide that will knock out tough-to-control weeds,” said Mike Hofer, Kixor Marketing Manager. “With Kixor applied to more than 10 million acres in its first year, it’s clear that BASF has developed a product for growers that helps them get the most out of every acre.”

Kixor has been successful in part because it addresses two of the most common challenges faced by growers – managing input costs and protecting yields – by controlling broadleaf weeds quickly and providing residual activity on tough broadleaf weeds.

“If you miss weeds early, they get bigger and tougher to control, and require additional applications. Usually those other applications are at higher herbicide rates – costing more money. Kixor can manage input costs and save money by controlling weeds fast and completely the first time,” said Dr. Dan Westberg, Technical Market Manager, BASF.

Industry Response to Kixor herbicide technology
John Heath of Plum Creek Agriculture Enterprises, LLC sees the addition of the Kixor family of products as a major advantage for Plum Creek customers. “Kixor is going to play a major role for our business from the standpoint that it’s going to give us another alternative. That will help us to combat some of the weed problems that we deal with on a regular basis in our farming practices,” he said. “Especially in our no-till and minimum till situations, it’s going to play a big role in helping us control some very tough weeds in the future.”

A recent BASF-commissioned survey of growers indicated that 56 percent of survey participants feel that glyphosate resistance has led to increased weed control challenges, especially for tough resistant weeds, such as giant ragweed, lambsquarters and marestail. To address these resistance issues, growers are actively looking to new herbicide technologies, like Kixor, to combat glyphosate, ALS inhibitor and triazine resistant weeds.

Kixor is ideal on ALS, glyphosate, and triazine resistant weeds because its unique chemistry provides broad spectrum foliar and residual broadleaf weed control across a wide range of crops. As the only product in the pyrimidineodione class of chemistry, it provides a new resistance management tool.

About Kixor
Kixor is labeled for use on a wide range of crops including corn, fallow, grain sorghum, soybeans, cereals, cotton, chickpeas, dry field peas, sunflower, citrus, pome fruit and nut trees. It provides broad-spectrum burndown and residual control on more than 70 tough broadleaf weeds, including those that have become more tolerant of glyphosate, such as common lambsquarters, marestail, common ragweed, giant ragweed, waterhemp and Russian thistle. Broadleaf weed burndown with Kixor is three to five times faster than 2,4-D or glyphosate.

For more information on Kixor and its family of products, please visit www.kixorherbicide.com.

About the Crop Protection division

With sales of €3.6 billion in 2009, BASF’s Crop Protection division is a leader in crop protection and a strong partner to the farming industry providing well-established and innovative fungicides, insecticides and herbicides. Farmers use these products and services to improve crop yields and crop quality. Other uses include public health, structural/urban pest control, turf and ornamental plants, vegetation management, and forestry. BASF aims to turn knowledge rapidly into market success. The vision of BASF’s Crop Protection division is to be the world’s leading innovator, optimizing agricultural production, improving nutrition, and thus enhancing the quality of life for a growing world population. Further information can be found on the web at www.agro.basf.com.

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BASF Corporation, headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, is the North American affiliate of BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF has approximately 16,000 employees in North America, and had sales of $13 billion in 2009. For more information about BASF’s North American operations, or to sign up to receive news releases by e-mail, visit www.basf.us.

BASF is the world’s leading chemical company: The Chemical Company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics and performance products to agricultural products, fine chemicals and oil and gas. As a reliable partner, BASF creates chemistry to help its customers in virtually all industries to be more successful. With its high-value products and intelligent solutions, BASF plays an important role in finding answers to global challenges, such as climate protection, energy efficiency, nutrition and mobility. BASF posted sales of more than €50 billion in 2009 and had approximately 105,000 employees as of the end of the year. Further information on BASF is available on the Internet at www.basf.com.

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