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If you've seen our farming film, Prove It to Me, you may be wondering, "What were the growers' yields?" 

For the Iowa growers who were trialing Accomplish LM, corn yields increased by an average of about 5 bushels/acre when the Accomplish LM biocatalyst was added to the grower's standard fertilizer program. Individual grower results can be seen in the chart below, with yield bumps that range from +0.12 to +10.74 bushels/acre.

"Twenty years ago, 140 or 150 bushel corn was really good...By the year 2030, we'll need to average 280 or 300 bushel corn," says Iowa grower Scott Poen. "We've got to have products like this."

Based on their 2015 yield results, the growers are using Accomplish LM on all of their fields this year. 

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Learn more about using Accomplish biocatalyst technology by downloading the Biocatalyst Technology FAQ Booklet.  

Jeff Frank, a fourth generation farmer from Auburn, Iowa, grows corn and soybeans on a 1,200-acre century farm that he and his wife operate. He is an avid drone enthusiast and dealer (hear him speak more about drones and farming in this video), sits on the board of directors of his local Farm Bureau, is currently a candidate for the Iowa Soybean Association board of directors, and recently converted his barn over to a new coffee roasting endeavor. You may also remember Jeff from last year’s farming film, Prove It to Me.

Like other growers across the country, Jeff is concerned about sustainability on his farm.

“When you think about what you’re putting on the field, you have to think about the future,” he says. “You try to do things to make the land better, so we leave it in better condition than when we got it.”

Enhancing Water Quality

Jeff is participating in the Elk Run Watershed Water Quality Initiative, a program promoting the implementation of in-field and edge-of-field practices that reduce nutrient loss to surface waters, all while maintaining the productive capability of cropland and providing farmers with a cost share benefit.

“Water quality is a big issue in our county,” says Jeff. “Because my ground water drains into Elk Run but is not in the watershed, I’ll be doing a cover crop project, and we’ll monitor my water to see what nitrates and phosphorus come out of the tile on the farm.”

There are several reasons why this type of project is appealing to Jeff. Not only is clean water a worthy goal for everyone—farmers included—but Jeff also hopes that finding effective, voluntary solutions can help prevent a level of regulation that might hurt farmers’ livelihoods.

“We all want clean water. Farmers are no different than anyone else,” says Jeff. “But if we can clean up the water voluntarily, that’s much better than being forced to. Certain regulations on nitrogen runoff could affect our yields and our profitability. One regulation doesn’t fit every operation.”

Understanding the Consumer Perspective

Another concern Jeff has is the misperceptions consumers have about farmers and farming. There’s a lot that consumers should know, and it’s something he feels farmers need to address.

“Farmers tend to be a tight-lipped bunch and we don’t like to brag, but we need to get out there and talk to consumers,” says Jeff. “We’re trying to produce as much as we can as cost-effectively as we can, and we’re also producing a safe product. I don’t think consumers understand that, and it's our responsibility to educate them.”

In the past year, Jeff converted his barn over to coffee roasting. Interestingly, his new endeavor has made him more understanding of the consumer perspective and the disconnect between consumers and farmers.

“The coffee roasting business my wife, son and I started this past year really opened my eyes,” says Jeff. “It was the first time I really understood why some people think meat comes from a grocery store. I thought the same thing about coffee! It’s simply not true. There’s a lot to coffee production. All of the things that make quality beans–the growing elevation, the volcanic soils, building trusting relationships with growers and their families–are really important.”

Reaching Out 

For his part, Jeff reaches out to consumers through his local Farm Bureau, including talking about farming and farm technologies through the Bureau’s “Agriculture in the Classroom” program and volunteering at the Iowa State Fair booths sponsored by the Farm Bureau and Iowa Food and Family to help promote consumer education.

“Our profession has grown and changed immensely in the last 20 years. For the kids, technology is a big thing,” says Jeff. “They are amazed that a farmer would be using the technology that we’re using today – things like autosteer in the tractors, remote sensing and drones. Those things are really phenomenal to them, and are becoming the standard in the industry.”

Social media is another way he reaches out, and hopes that other farmers will, too. 

“Social media is something a lot of farmers really aren’t accustomed to, but we need to use it,” says Jeff. “I tweet and my wife knows social media is a must in today’s retail world. We hope other farmers will be encouraged to be more comfortable with new ways of communication to help promote the diligence and integrity of today’s farmers.”

If you would like to see more of Jeff on his farm and hear more about his experiences, we invite you to watch the film "Prove it to Me".

Titan XC is now available from Loveland Products! Designed to improve dry fertilizer efficiency, Titan XC is a new, next-generation biocatalyst for dry fertilizers that ‘unlocks’ applied nutrients, making them available more quickly so that more of them are taken up by plant roots. It is extra concentrated for easier application and superior impregnation onto fertilizer prill.

“For a grower’s dry fertilizer program, Titan XC is the key to quick release and uptake of a broad range of vital plant nutrients. This can really maximize the return on a grower’s dry fertilizer investment,” says John Oesch, Marketing Manager for the Southern Ohio division of Crop Production Services (CPS).

Titan XC offers growers benefits that include:

• Increased nutrient availability and uptake
• Enhanced nutrient use efficiency
• Better root growth and development
• Improved plant performance
• Optimized yield potential

The recommended rate for impregnation on dry fertilizers is 1 to 2 pints of Titan XC per ton of dry fertilizer.

Titan XC is manufactured for Loveland Products by Agricen.

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Learn more about Titan XC by downloading the Titan XC product booklet.

We are proud to share the news that “Prove It to Me,” our film that documents the experiences of five farmers during the 2015 growing season, has won two Telly Awards: one for videography and one in the green/eco-friendly category.

Founded in 1979, the Telly Awards are the premier awards honoring outstanding TV and web commercials, videos and films. Winners of this highly respected national and international competition are selected from among over 12,000 entries submitted annually from across the U.S. and abroad.

“Prove It to Me,” which can be viewed online at Agricen.TV, was produced for Agricen by Back Home Productions, a digital agency based in North Carolina. The film title, “Prove It to Me,” is a quote taken from one of the growers in the film–M.H. Bitely–who is trying Agricen's products for the first time in his corn fields. Initially a healthy skeptic, he is able to witness product benefits, including a great yield, over the course of the season.

“With low prices on grain, you need every acre to produce what it’s capable of producing,” said Mr. Bitely. “I think this film is important because it shows some of the big issues that farmers are facing every day. It also shows how we evaluate new products and claims. I don’t just take somebody else’s word to be gospel. Prove it to me.”

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Watch “Prove It to Me” online now, or request a complimentary copy of the film. 

Chris Perkins, a Nutrien Ag Solutions location manager in Otwell, Indiana, likes to practice what he preaches when it comes to the products he recommends to growers. If he’s not familiar with something, he tests it on his own family farm and carefully evaluates the data to make sure the product is living up to its claims.

“My dad lets me have 17 acres for a community plot where we’re doing corn on corn,” says Chris. “I want to show guys ‘Hey, this is what we’re doing, and this is what we’re seeing because of this product, management practice or hybrid.’”

Over the past few years, Chris has been evaluating Accomplish and Titan on his 17 acres, and he’s seen both his yields and his soil nutrient values rise. Along with the fertility added by the continuous corn, he credits the Accomplish and Titan technologies for contributing to a good portion of those increases.

“These acres have received moderate fertilizer levels, but not enough to support the rise in soil nutrient values we’re seeing, much less the yields being attained,” says Chris. “We’re testing soil from the same spot in the same way and at the same lab, and that’s how we noticed something big going on with potassium and phosphorus. There’s something happening in the soil. And even when I work the ground, it has more tilth to it than I’ve seen in years.”

As part of Chris’s program, he has been applying Titan on dry fertilizer before planting, then running Accomplish with starter in furrow. In the fall, he runs Accomplish with nitrogen and works the ground. Chris recognizes that continuous corn contributes to the fertility in the field by moving minerals to the surface through residue. But his other corn on corn acres aren’t doing as well as those where he uses Titan and Accomplish.

“In fall 2013, we were in the low- to mid-100s [lbs per acre] on potassium and low- to high-20s for phosphorus. From a fertility standpoint, there were really no available nutrients there for the crop,” says Chris. “Then, when you look at the soil samples from January 2015, we’re at the mid-60s for P and over 300 for potassium, and that’s after we took off a 230 bushel corn crop. By February 2016, my potassium was in the 400s and phosphorus continues to rise, right on the heels of the fall harvest of a 260 bushel corn crop in 2015. At the fertility rates being run, that’s just not what I’m expecting to see.”

Abbreviations: BpH=buffer pH; OM=organic matter. Nutrient values reported as lbs/acre unless otherwise specified; averages are taken from 2.5-acre grid samples.

“Putting it another way, over the course of three years, I’ve put on 500 lbs of DAP—about 230 lbs of phosphate—and harvested three corn crops. Technically, there wasn’t enough fertilizer in there to have the soil test at 96 lbs per acre this February from the 20s back in 2013,” says Chris. “When you calculate what we took away with the grain, it’s about 235 lbs of phosphate. Those three crops only got 230 lbs and we went up almost 70 lbs in the ground.”

To check how much nutrient release he might be getting from stover, Chris compared nutrient values with his other fields in corn on corn production. 

“Where I just work the ground and don’t apply Accomplish in the fall, my potassium levels increased by about 30-50 lbs per acre in corn on corn rotations. But where I run Accomplish with nitrogen, the levels have increased over 100 lbs per acre,” explains Chris. “My soil nutrient levels speak for themselves. I keep doing the math and looking for explanations on why our fertility rates are getting better, and I really think it has something to do with these products.” 

Download our biocatalyst technology FAQ to learn more about Accomplish and other biocatalyst technologies.

One of the benefits of using Accomplish in production agriculture is its ability to increase the availability of nutrients in the soil. A quick soil nutrient analysis performed at the Loveland Products Research Farm in Owensboro, Kentucky shows just how quickly and powerfully a soil application of Accomplish LM can release bound nutrients to make them available for plant uptake.

In this demonstration, soil was collected from the field, mixed in a bucket and separated into two equal samples. The untreated sample was bagged, sealed and labeled. The second sample was bagged and Accomplish LM was added to moisten the soil without oversaturating it. The bag was then sealed and the sample incubated for 24 hours, followed by a 3-day air drying period prior to lab analysis.

Testing showed that, in just four days, Accomplish increased the availability of every nutrient in the treated soil, except calcium.  

From a fertilizer application and plant health standpoint, expedited nutrient release has major benefits for crop production. Use Accomplish to improve soil chemistry and help crops thrive!

We all know the importance of nitrogen in producing a high-yielding corn crop, but it is easy to forget or even ignore that the timing of an nitrogen application can be the key to maximizing its benefits.

Nitrogen applied pre-plant can be susceptible to loss through volatility, denitrification or leaching, which means it may not be available for use by the crop at critical stages. Peak demand for nitrogen in a corn crop comes between V10-V14 (right before tasseling) and, although the demand measured in pounds of nitrogen taken up per day may slow, nitrogen is still a critical factor in grain fill.

With increased scrutiny on nutrient leaching, combined with the need to drive more production out of the same acre, maximizing nitrogen uptake and utilization will become more and more important.

By applying all of their nitrogen up front, growers can miss out on a big opportunity to optimize nitrogen uptake and utilization by the plant. To meet the goals of increased production AND increased sustainability, growers will have to work hard to increase the NUE of their corn crops to lower the pounds of nitrogen used to produce a bushel of corn. For all of these reasons, it makes sense to sidedress.

Learn more about making the most efficient and effective sidedress nitrogen application with Extract PBA in a UAN sidedress program.

By Randy Stockhorst, Loveland Products, Ohio

For soybean plants, R3 is a critical growth stage during which the plant's nutrient needs rise to support pod growth and development. By applying Extract PBA with a soybean pre-emerge herbicide, growers can ensure their plants will have the nutrition they need at this critical growth period, which will position them for an excellent yield outcome.

In our area of northwest Ohio, potassium deficiency is the most prevalent deficiency that we've seen in R3 soybean tissue samples over the past several years. The amount of potassium stored in corn stalks is a little more than a 1-to-1 ratio on yield. That means that in a 200 bushel corn crop, for example, there are approximately 205 lbs of potassium locked in the stalks.

By applying Extract PBA on corn residue now, growers can accelerate nutrient release and mineralization so that more nutrients–including potassium–are available to their soybean crop at the reproductive stages.

Farmers in our area who utilized this product last fall are indeed impressed with the activity on corn stalks, and those who utilize it this spring can expect similar results. As you can see below, the concentrated biochemistry in an application of Extract PBA breaks down the stalk, releasing nutrients for the next crop.

Untreated (left) vs Extract PBA-treated (right) corn stalks. Extract PBA was applied in the fall of 2015. Photo taken in March 2016 in Carey, Ohio.

In addition to nutrient release, other benefits of adding Extract PBA to a spring pre-emergence soybean herbicide application include:

• An easier tillage pass on soybean stubble this fall
• Soil that will be drier and warm up faster for the next year's corn planting
• Less disease pressure from the stalks

I encourage anyone who is planting soybeans this spring to consider applying Extract PBA as part of their pre-emerge plan. 

Learn more about using Extract PBA in the spring or fall by watching a webinar.

By Maud Hinchee, PhD, Chief Science Officer, Agricen Sciences

Getting a good start is key to a germinating seed’s need to “survive and thrive.” Essential to this process is establishing a root system that creates a strong foothold and provides access to available nutrients and water. But how does the emerging seedling root do this? 

It turns out that the new root is constantly making choices about where and when to grow based on the environment it encounters. Guided by its “root brain,” it makes decisions that maximize its access to water and nutrients as quickly as possible.  

The root brain is found in the transition zone of the root tip – the area between the region of cell division and cell elongation. A good look at this control point in the root can be seen in this microscopic time-lapse view of a growing root. Here, the root receives and integrates multiple sensory signals in response to environmental cues. It can then respond to those cues by adjusting the rate and direction of its growth to ensure it has the best access to water and nutrients. By “deciding” which cells divide or elongate, the root can change where and how fast it moves through the soil.

This root brain does not act alone. Much as chemical signaling in our nervous system carries signals to and from our brains, similar processes happen in the plant. The plant hormone auxin, for instance, interacts with plant cells in a similar way that neurotransmitters (chemical messengers) interact with our own nerve cells to carry messages. Auxin is crucial to the root’s perception of and response to environmental signals, and helps to control things such as the timing and rate of cell elongation, as well as potential sites for lateral root production.

The plant can even call in allies to obtain more auxin and bolster its root growth potential. In a microscopic barter, roots exude carbohydrates that act as food offerings to soil microbes. The microbes, in turn, produce auxins to be consumed by the plant as a supplement that supports to the plant in its goal to produce larger, more branched root systems.

The root systems of young seedlings not only rely on their decision-making capacity to survive and thrive, but they also have another strong ally – the farmer. Farmers help by applying fertilizers, growth stimulators or other products that assist a plant in growing strong roots or accessing nutrients and water. For example, the signaling molecules in some agricultural biostimulants provide messages that assist the root brain in making critical decisions that affect when, where and how a root system develops.

The capacity for roots to assess and respond to the environment is a major part of how a plant wins the survival campaign for water, nutrients, light and space. Root growth and development decisions made now and in the future can make or break a plant’s success—and the farmer is a key partner in helping the plant survive and thrive.

Dig deeper into the soil by downloading our Soil Microbiology & Biochemistry Booklet.

By Jeremiah Butler

As we enter planting time and growers make final decisions for the coming crop year, many growers will consider using in-furrow products. There are several reasons why they should research and consider in-furrow applications.  

Many of you have heard Dr. Fred Below of the University of Illinois talk about his “Seven Wonders of the Corn Yield World.” As we look at the factors below, we can see that there is no silver bullet. Attaining a high yield truly takes a systems approach!

Seven Wonders of the Corn Yield World and Their Potential Impact on Yield

The value of each factor is presented in bushels/acre as well as a percentage of the total (260 bushels/acre). Source: U Illinois Crop Physiology Lab

Although in-furrow products are not included on his list of major factors that impact corn yield, Dr. Below was recently asked whether in-furrow products are important in an interview with Farm Industry News. Here is his answer:

"We are starting to see synergistic advantages of in-furrow technologies, where a fungicide is applied with an insecticide along with a starter fertilizer. These products enhance and protect the plant or seedling, and by having the nutrients alongside them, can start the plant off to a faster growth trajectory. Ultimately, I think we will have other growth-enhancing technologies that can go in-furrow. I think it is one of the next new things in agriculture."

So, when should growers consider a starter fertilizer? There are several scenarios in which an in-furrow product can make a lot of sense:

• When cultural practices such as no-till or minimum tillage are utilized
• On coarse textured or low organic matter soils
• On poorly drained or cold soils
• On low testing P and K soils
• When nodal root systems are severally impeded by challenging growing conditions
• When soil pH is unusually high or low
• When substantial drought stress is likely

Loveland Products has a variety of in-furrow technologies that can be used as part of a systems approach to obtaining a healthy, high yielding crop. In addition to the starter fertilizers Levitate and Riser, these include:

• Accomplish LM, a biochemical technology that improves nutrient availability and uptake for better plant performance
• Radiate, a growth regulator that can be used to promote a larger root mass for more water and nutrient interception
• Organic acid technologies including Black Label Zn and BlackMax 22
• Satori fungicide
• Sniper LFR insecticide 

We wish you the best of luck as you get growing this season.

Learn more about Accomplish LM by downloading the Accomplish LM booklet.