Dirty little Pursuit secret

Some farmers are importing Pursuit herbicide from the United States and saving a pile of money. That’s good news for the producers involved, but there are unfortunate consequences. The price tag on a 3.3 litre container in Western Canada is nearly $1,100. The comparable price in the U.S. is about half that amount. Under a program called GROU, Grower Requested Own Use, selected products can be imported by growers when they are deemed to be chemically equivalent. In recent weeks, Pursuit has become eligible for GROU. Both Farmers of North America and Rayglen Commodities are acting as facilitators. Despite Canadian approval delays, some American Pursuit has entered the country. Unfortunately, most growers are bringing in Pursuit for what is actually an unregistered use. Pursuit is not registered for lentils. In fact, it’s not registered for any dryland use in the brown and dark brown soil zones. There just haven’t been other viable weed control options for lentils. Amazingly, the GROU program seems blind to the issue of non-registered use. While some producers are going to save a lot of money, local farm input suppliers are going to take a financial hit and the dirty little secret about the non-registered use of Pursuit isn’t as concealed anymore. It’s too bad that BASF, the maker of Pursuit hadn’t just kept its Canadian price in line with the U.S. price. I’m Kevin Hursh.