For the past several years, there have been hints of cross-pollination among golf industry pesticide producers as they seek answers to the ever-changing demands of their customers and the pressures placed upon them from outside entities. Indeed, the quest for sustainability has resulted in a series of cooperative relationships among companies that are otherwise competitors as they come together to recognize each others strengths and how all can benefit from sharing technologies.
The most recent example of this philosophy brings together not two, but three of the green industrys major chemical pesticide manufacturers and includes with Spread it & Forget it controlled-release fertilizer from Agrium Advanced Technologies in combination with one of two herbicide products Barricade from Syngenta or Dimension from Dow AgroSciences .
Both combination products are available in a granular formulation that allows professional turf managers can fertilize up to once every six months in a program that also delivers pre-emergent control of grassy weeds such as crabgrass.
The Spread it & Forget it label is based on Agriums Duration CR controlled-release fertilizer technology that the company acquired when it bought Pursell Technologies in 2006. Duration features a polymer coating derived from natural plant oils, and the controlled-release technology means less chance of leaching. 
Syngentas Barricade, with the active ingredient prodiamine, is labeled for pre-emergent control of a variety of grassy weeds including crabgrass in established turf varieties such as kikuyugrass, seashore paspalum, zoysiagrass. 
With the active ingredient dithiopyr, Dimension is Dow AgroSciences specialty herbicide is labeled for pre-emergent and post-emergent control of crabgrass, goosegrass, spurge and Poa annua on greens, tees and fairways in a host of warm- and cool-season grasses.
Although such reciprocal arrangements have occurred with increasing regularity in agriculture, they are less common in the turf and ornamental industry. In 2008, BASF struck an accord with Bayer to supply the latter with the fungicide triticonazole for use in golf, sports turf, landscape and lawn care applications. While such partnerships might seem unthinkable when walking through the delineated trade show floor at GIS, they could be more common as professional turf managers continue to face new challenges brought about by changing management standards, natures self-defense mechanisms and pressure to attain sustainability.