Monsanto has completed a $50 million expansion at its Muscatine, Iowa plant. The expansion provides increases the formulations and packaging capacity at the plant to support the launch of Monsanto’s dicamba-tolerant trait technologies.

“Iowa is fortunate to have innovative companies like Monsanto that are making significant investments to create jobs in our communities while also providing farmers new tools to help increase productivity and reduce their environmental impact, said Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey. “The Muscatine plant expansion will help ensure farmers continue to have a variety of tools as they work to increase yields and improve profitability.”

Open since 1961, the Muscatine facility employs 400 full-time workers. It produces both selective chemistry products and glyphosate-based herbicide products in Monsanto’s crop protection portfolio including Warrant, Degree, Harness, Roundup WeatherMax and XtendiMax.

“For more than 55 years we have been a proud part of this community and today is a celebration of the success and importance of modern agriculture in the great state of Iowa,” said Shawn Schrader, Monsanto Muscatine plant manager. “The work taking place at this site will play an important role in helping farmers produce better harvests and meet the global demand for food – putting Muscatine at the heart of one of the largest agricultural weed management in history.”

The dicamba-based Roundup Ready Xtend Crop System is designed to provide farmers with more consistent, flexible control of weeds, especially tough-to-manage and glyphosate-resistant weeds. The Roundup Ready Xtend Crop System has potential for use across more than 200 million acres of soybean and cotton production in the Americas, and possibly corn production.