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Agricen and Taranis, a precision agriculture company, have received a grant from the Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation to collaborate on a project to advance and commercialize a new precision agriculture system for abiotic stress detection and prevention in row crops. 

Abiotic stresses are environmental or physical impacts on a plant (e.g., drought, salinity, extreme temperatures, nutrient deficiency), and result in billions of dollars of lost crop value each year. The Agricen/Taranis collaboration will address this agricultural challenge by creating a solution that merges the Taranis platform—which incorporates field imaging technology and a deep learning algorithm—with Agricen’s proven biostimulant technologies.

Once developed, the system will be able to be utilized in any geography to help detect and prevent abiotic stress in row crops, saving growers significant time and resources while increasing plant health and yield opportunities.

A simulation of the abiotic stress detection platform that will be developed is shown in the image above, with red boxes outlining the signs of drought stress in corn. Based on the stress identified, appropriate recommendations can be made—including the use of agricultural biostimulants—to both ameliorate the conditions causing stress and prevent further crop damage.  

Learn more about Agricen's biostimulant technologies by downloading our Biocatalyst Technology FAQ. 

In this corn field trial from Wood River, Nebraska, a spring application of Extract PBA led to a corn yield result that was 32 bu/a better than check at harvest. Assuming $5.80 bushel corn, the yield result from this trial translates into an ROI of $173.60 per acre.

The trial was conducted in an irrigated corn on corn plot with very high residue. The plot was minimum tilled in front of the planter. Right after planting, Extract PBA was broadcast applied at 1 gal/acre with 1 gal/acre UAN and 8 gal/acre of water. The trial was harvested at the end of October. 

Extract PBA is labeled for both spring broadcast applications and residue management applications.

Learn more about maximizing nutrient release with Extract PBA by accessing the Extract PBA information booklet.

Results from corn trials in central Indiana show the potential for big corn yield gains and ROI with fall-applied Titan XC. 

In the fall of 2016, Titan XC-treated and untreated dry fertilizer (MES10 and 0-0-60) was applied to three fields in central Indiana using a variable rate technology (VRT) system. The fields were planted with corn in the spring. In the fall of 2017, the corn crop harvested from Titan XC-treated parts of the fields demonstrated both an increased yield and an impressive ROI compared to the crops harvested from the untreated parts of the fields. 

In both the first and second trials, the yield improvement with Titan XC was 12 bu/a compared to untreated, with an ROI of more than $35 an acre. In the third trial, the yield improvement with Titan XC was even more impressive at a whopping 41 bu/a, with an ROI of more than $135/acre.

Learn more about Titan XC by watching our "Fertilizer Breakdown with Titan XC" video. 

Growers who spread dry fertilizer on corn fields going to soybeans may want to consider the results of this Titan XC trial from Cozad, Nebraska. In a test plot, treating dry fertilizer with Titan XC provided a 14 bushel/acre yield advantage in soybeans compared to the soybean plots where untreated fertilizer was applied.

Over the past few years, we've posted several agriculture-related videos that showcase the efforts growers are making to implement new products and practices that help them improve ag productivity and sustainability. If you haven't yet seen them, here are a few of the most popular and most recent.

Prove It to Me (4-min version)

"Prove It to Me" follows 5 growers in Iowa and Arkansas during the course of a growing season. See the issues they face, as well as how they approach using new products—including Accomplish and Titan—as they try to maximize their productivity and sustainability. 

Grower Stories: Chris Perkins, Otwell, Indiana

In this video, you can hear Chris Perkins, a grower and Nutrien Ag Solutions location manager in Otwell, Indiana, speak about how he uses Accomplish and Titan to tap into nutrients in his field, bring up fertility levels, and sustain a healthy soil structure under his corn on corn acres. You will also hear from Dr. Fred Below of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who discusses the success Chris has had raising soil fertility levels and crop productivity. 

Building Sustainable Agriculture Programs

Working together with state and local government, USDA, and others, farmers around Black Hawk Lake in Iowa are testing and implementing conservation practices to protect the lake from nitrate runoff. As part of their efforts, Jeff Frank and some other local growers are using Accomplish and other biocatalyst products to help them be even more sustainable in their agricultural practices, while also keeping their acres productive. See what they are doing by watching the video.

You can also access our biocatalyst technology FAQ to learn more about Accomplish, Titan, and other biocatalyst technologies.

As growers deal with tight budgets and carefully evaluate all of their input costs, a simple dry fertilizer demonstration shows why Titan XC is important to any operation's bottom line.

Prepared by Nutrien Ag Solutions in Cecilia, Kentucky, these jar tests shows the value that Titan XC brings when applied to dry fertilizers. As you can see in the photos, Titan XC has accelerated the breakdown of fertilizer prill in the treated jars, translating into greater nutrient release and improved fertilizer efficiency in the field. All photos were taken after three weeks.

You can see similar results in this time-lapse video of fertilizer breakdown with Titan XC on 9-23-30, 11-52-0 and MESZ fertilizers.

Download the Titan XC product booklet or contact Nutrien Ag Solutions to learn more about using this biocatalyst technology for dry fertilizers.

In this Kansas wheat trial, Titan XC provided a yield and ROI advantage when used with a banded dry fertilizer application.

Titan XC was applied at 1 pint per ton on MicroEssentials SZ (MESZ), which was placed in-furrow. Compared to the untreated MESZ, the Titan XC-treated MESZ raised wheat yields, with a 7 bu/a yield increase. With wheat prices estimated at $6.50/bu, the return on investment with Titan XC in this trial would be $43.62 per acre.

Titan XC contains concentrated biochemistry that can help growers unlock the potential of their dry fertilizer program. By accelerating prill breakdown to expedite nutrient availability and uptake, Titan XC can turn dry fertilizer into a driver of performance on your farm.

Learn more about using Titan XC to maximize the efficiency of dry fertilizers by watching a webinar.

In a Dyna-Gro corn plot harvested near Cozad, Nebraska, treating MicroEssentials SZ (MESZ) fertilizer with Titan XC led to a 14.4 bushel per acre increase in corn yield compared to untreated MESZ. The corn was harvested on September 20, 2017.

In the trial, MESZ was applied at a rate of 120 pounds per acre. In the treated rows, Titan XC had been applied to the dry fertilizer at 1 pint per ton. Corn from the eight rows fertilized with Titan XC-treated MESZ yielded 282.7 bu/acre, while the corn yield from the eight rows sown with untreated fertilizer was 268 bu/acre. The previous crop was soybean.

To learn more about Titan XC, please visit the Titan XC information hub.

Extract PBA has been making a big difference in soybean trials being conducted by Nutrien Ag Solutions Palmyra at a farm just outside of Monroe City, Missouri. Extract PBA was applied in the fall of 2016 at 1 gallon per acre on corn stalks, along with 2 gallons per acre of UAN. Soybeans were planted on May 18, 2017, and all pictures were taken approximately two months later, on July 26, 2017.

The photos show that soybeans from the Extract-treated part of the field have longer primary roots, larger leaves and stems, and more nodes and nodules compared to soybeans from the untreated parts of the field. 

"There is a significant difference in the number of nodes and nodules," says Andrea Althoff, the intern in charge of conducting the trial. "The greater number of nodules helps with nutrient absorption and the consistency of the plants allows for more even sunlight distribution, both of which can lead to higher yields."

Andrea notes that the farm, which follows a corn/soybean rotation, has clay pan soils with poor drainage. Although it is drought prone, she adds that it is capable of producing 200 bushel corn and 70 bushel soybeans when growing conditions line up.

See more Extract PBA results in soybeans by downloading our featured soybean study. 

After a fertilizer application, hungry crops must wait for nutrient mineralization to occur before the applied nutrients are available to use. To speed up and enhance this process, growers can utilize Extract PBA as a nutrient release tool to improve nutrient availability and uptake. As seen in this winter wheat trial, the result is noticeably better plant performance when compared to plants grown on untreated acres.

The trial, which was conducted in heavily manured fields in Ohio, looked at the effect of adding 1 gallon per acre of Extract PBA to a grower's existing fertilizer program of 28% UAN. Wheat plants in the untreated plot were planted on October 24, 2016, while plants in the Extract-treated plot were planted a month later, on November 25, 2016. Photos were taken in April 2017.

In the spring, wheat plants from the Extract-treated plot were much farther along than plants from the untreated plot, despite being a month behind on planting. 

This trial provides a visible demonstration of how early nutrient availability can enhance overall crop health and performance.

Learn more about the performance of Extract PBA in wheat fields by accessing our Extract wheat study.