An innovative herbicide-tolerant crop production system promises to help growers worldwide optimize their resource management by combining advanced herbicide-tolerant seed varieties with herbicides specifically engineered for each crop.

The CLEARFIELD* Production System from American Cyanamid will help growers across the United States optimize valuable resources such as labor, fuel, equipment and time while maximizing yield potential in corn, wheat, canola, and sugarbeets. The new system takes advantage of the flexible and time-proven imidazolinone herbicide technology.

The CLEARFIELD Production System is the global umbrella brand that will make it easier for growers to match superior seed genetics with custom designed weed control in eight major crops. Cyanamid has developed agreements with many of the world's major seed companies to incorporate the CLEARFIELD technology in their choice hybrids and/or varieties. Growers will simply look for the unique CLEARFIELD symbol on their preferred hybrids and/or varieties and then match them with an imidazolinone herbicide from the CLEARFIELD family of herbicides that is custom designed for that crop.

The CLEARFIELD Production System differs from current herbicide-tolerant systems in two significant ways. First, it provides both contact and season-long control. Second, each CLEARFIELD herbicide is specifically designed to achieve maximum control of the particular weed species most likely to infest each crop.

"Other herbicide-tolerant seed lines offer only one herbicide active ingredient for all crops," says Vic Smith, assistant vice-president global marketing, herbicide tolerant crops. "These contact-only herbicides require growers to delay herbicide application until weeds have sprouted and can result in incomplete and short-lived weed control. CLEARFIELD herbicides, such as LIGHTNING® herbicide for corn, provide flexible application timing, offering growers effective, broad-spectrum weed control from planting through harvest."

In the United States, these components of the new system are now available:

Corn hybrids with CLEARFIELD technology from Pioneer, Garst, Mycogen, Golden Harvest
and others treated with LIGHTNING® herbicide for CLEARFIELD corn.
300 CLEARFIELD corn hybrids from 100 seed companies with weed control by LIGHTNING®
herbicide for CLEARFIELD corn.

Other CLEARFIELD crops are projected to be available in the next few years, including wheat in 2001 and rice in 2002. Canola received Section 18 registration in Minnesota and North Dakota this year and is expected to have full registration in the year 2000.

"With the introduction of the CLEARFIELD Production System, Cyanamid reaffirms its commitment to its customers and seed partners: to provide reliable, high-quality, effective, environmentally sound products that are backed with consistently superior product support," Vic Smith says.

American Cyanamid Company is a leading global developer and marketer of crop protection products for agricultural, specialty and consumer markets. Cyanamid produces and markets herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides in the major agricultural regions of the world.

Cyanamid is a subsidiary of American Home Products Corporation (NYSE:AHP), one of the world's largest research-based pharmaceutical and health care product companies. AHP is a leader in the discovery, development, manufacturing and marketing of prescription drugs and over-the-counter medications. It is also a global leader in vaccines, biotechnology, agricultural products and animal health care.

* The UNIQUE CLEARFIELD SYMBOL and CLEARFIELD are trademarks of American Cyanamid Company. LIGHTNING is a registered trademark of American Cyanamid Company.

Company news release
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