Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network spoke with Scott Lay about making sidedress applications pay off with Accomplish LM. 

Iowa Agribusiness: Tell me about Accomplish LM.

Lay: Accomplish is a product we've had on the market for several years. It's a fertilizer biocatalyst, which is a product that makes nutrients more available to the plant. It mineralizes nutrients that may otherwise be bound up in the soil, creating a better outcome or yield result in the crop. 

Iowa Agribusiness: Obviously farmers are going to have to put on more nitrogen this year. So this is a supplement to go along with that?

Lay: It is. It would be used in combination with liquid UAN-type sidedress applications. Through several years of extensive testing with land-grant universities and other third-parties, we've found that when we employ Accomplish with UAN, we are able to hold more nitrogen in a plant-available ammonium nitrate form and we also see a benefit in release of phosphorus, potash, and other nutrients that may be bound in the soil. On average, we've seen about a 6 bushel per acre increase when we use Accomplish in a sidedress application.

Iowa Agribusiness: When you talk to farmers who've used this product, have they seen a good return on investment?

Lay: Yes. In on-farm use, it's often difficult to quantify a yield impact because we need a treated versus untreated. In instances where we've been able to do so, the results have been very positive, the feedback has been positive, and we have a lot of repeat farmer customers who come back to Accomplish the next year. We have done about 50-60 on-farm trials in multiple states across the Midwest, with the average yield impact of 6 bushels. So it's a net positive investment that I think makes a lot of sense in terms of getting more value out of the nitrogen being applied at this time of the year.

Iowa Agribusiness: Has this technology been around for a while?

Lay: It's been commercially available since about 2010. We had a lot of success utilizing Accomplish in combination with starter fertilizers earlier in the season. It was through additional research and trial and error, frankly, that we found additional benefit when it is applied with a liquid UAN application at sidedress. 

As farmers make the determination as to whether supplemental nitrogen is needed and how much, positive net return is still the name of the game. By utilizing Accomplish, we believe that we are able to get a consistent return and more benefit from each dollar spent on additional nitrogen.

Iowa Agribusiness: So this is something farmers do not want to cut costs on?

Lay: There are certainly instances or places where it is prudent to scale back costs. But one place you certainly don't want to scale back is in making sure there is adequate nutrition for your crop to ensure you can maximize yields.

Learn more about using Accomplish LM in a sidedress application by accessing our Sidedressing Nitrogen for Maximum Yields booklet.