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See the latest news, innovation updates, trial results, grower stories and more from Agricen. 
Using Terramar on Reproductive-Stage Corn & Soybeans to Reduce Stress
June 29, 2023 — Posted By Agricen

Growers know all too well that hot and dry conditions can contribute to yield loss in corn and soybean crops, especially when these stresses last for a prolonged period of time. Terramar gives growers the opportunity to mitigate the effects of these weather-related stresses so that their crops can hold on to their yield potential.

There are two key opportunities for making a Terramar application on corn and soybeans.
The first opportunity to apply Terramar is with the early post herbicide pass, typically at the V4-V5 growth stage in both crops. The second opportunity—one that is approaching soon—is with a fungicide or foliar plant nutrition pass on corn and soybeans. For those who have already applied Terramar earlier in the season, a two-pass program (first at the early vegetative growth stage, then at the reproductive stages) may be beneficial, particularly if crops are under prolonged stress.

In corn and soybeans, the window for applying Terramar with fungicide or plant nutrition products is:

  • Corn - V10 (early season) through R3 (tar spot)
  • Soybeans - Pre-bloom through R3

All Terramar applications made at reproductive stages should be at a minimum rate of 1 quart/acre. Applications can be made by airplane, helicopter or a ground rig.

Below are two examples of recent trials in which Terramar was applied at reproductive stages in corn and soybeans, leading to yield increases compared to the grower's standard practice.

Terramar-cornTerramar-soybeans

Impact of Heat and Drought Stress During Corn and Soybean Reproductive Stages

Typical fungicide applications occur as much of the Corn Belt, East and South begins to experience the most extreme time of heat and drought stress.

These conditions can have a significant, negative impact on the ability of corn and soybean crops to reach their full yield potential. About two weeks before silk emergence, corn enters the period of grain yield determination that is most sensitive to heat and drought stress. At this stage, wilting of the plant due to stress can decrease yield by 3-4% per day. During the silking and pollen shed period, severe stress may reduce yield up to 8% per day and, in the two weeks following silking, severe stress may reduce yield up to 6% per day.

In soybeans, stress during reproductive stages (R1 to R3) can lead to as many as 60-75% of flowers and up to 50% of the formed pods vulnerable to being aborted.

How Terramar Helps to Address Heat and Drought Stress

Terramar has a unique ability to minimize stress by lowering the canopy temperature and increasing photosynthetic capacity during this critical window.

As seen in the chart below, the technology in Terramar lowered the canopy temperature of highly stressed corn for a window of more than 30 days. A lower canopy temperature means less stress for the plant.

Leaf temperature MBT

As we approach the reproductive stages of both corn and soybeans, the potential for yield loss increases daily. This is where Terramar can play a significant role in helping them “Stand Up to Stress” for a better-performing plant and a better overall outcome.

Learn more about Terramar by downloading the Terramar Row Crop Bulletin.

Access the Bulletin

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A New Option for Combating Drought Stress
June 12, 2023 — Posted By Agricen

With growers turning their attention to early post-emergent herbicide and other foliar applications in corn and soybeans, Agricen's Scott Lay spoke with Dennis Michelsen of WITY Radio to discuss Terramar, a new option for mitigating the effects of weather-related stress and helping crops realize their yield potential.

Dennis - WITY Radio: Tell us a little bit about Terramar.

Scott - Agricen:  Terramar is not only a new product, but also a new practice that can now be employed in farmers’ growing systems: the practice of minimizing weather-related stresses. Weather plays a tremendous role in determining yield, and weather stress may present itself through the months of May, June and July in the form of heat, drought or other challenges. Terramar helps to minimize the stress impact that crops experience and allows them to realize more of their potential.

Dennis - WITY Radio: I understand it's derived in part from kelp.

Scott - Agricen:  It is. Our colleagues in California who grow fruit and vegetable crops have been using kelp for some time. They recognize that plant extracts from kelp help crops with stress. It doesn't take the place of moisture or precipitation, but it does allow that plant to continue more of its normal physiological growth processes and minimize the impact of heat and drought.

There's also a carbon component to Terramar. Even in the absence of stress, that carbon provides needed energy for the plant, which is then translated into a plant that can pull more water and nutrients into the cells as it needs them. We saw some tremendous positive yield results last year when Terramar was applied in corn and beans.

Dennis - WITY Radio: There's a lot of different kinds of stress that Terramar can help fight.

Scott - Agricen:  If we apply this technology early in the crop's growth process, we're preparing that crop for whatever may come. While we can't predict whether there will be any heat or drought impact on that crop, we do know that if we can improve specific metrics in the plant with Terramar, for instance, increased chlorophyll production or increased water transpiration, that will result in a better performing plant, regardless of weather circumstances.

Dennis - WITY Radio:  Terramar is applied with a foliar application and I understand it mixes well with other crop inputs growers are already going to be using. How late into the season can we apply Terramar?

Scott - Agricen:  It can be applied even as late as reproductive stages in concert with fungicide applications. In corn, that’s shortly after pollination or tassel time. In soybeans, those fungicide applications may take place well into the reproductive stages into late July or early August.

Dennis - WITY Radio: I like to think of a product like Terramar as sort of like an insurance policy. Could we benefit by using it twice, one run with the herbicides and then maybe later with the fungicide application?

Scott - Agricen:  Last year we saw evidence of that, where multiple applications turned out to provide a greater return in terms of increased yield. You could think of it as a practice that allows the plant to perform more closely to its potential. And in the absence of stress, pulling more nutrients into that plant—which the carbon based component provides—is a very critical yield enhancing practice.

Dennis - WITY Radio:  What sorts of results have you seen when you look at the return on investment?

Scott - Agricen:  Last year, the average response in corn was 7 to 8 bushels. In times of severe heat and drought stress like we had in the Western Corn belt, those yield responses were even greater, oftentimes in the 12- to 15-bushel range. In soybeans last year, the average yield response was right at about 4 to 5 bushels. Under today's commodity price environment, that’s a very handsome return.

Terramar is available from Nutrien Ag Solutions.

This interview was edited for length and clarity. You can listen to the interview below or on Agricen's YouTube channel.

Learn more about Terramar by downloading the Terramar product booklet.

Access the Booklet

 

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[On-Demand] Terramar: A New Way to Help Row Crops Stand Up to Stress
May 24, 2023 — Posted By Agricen

Terramar Webinar

How can growers mitigate the effects of weather-related crop stresses like heat and dry conditions while also increasing nutrient uptake by their crops during the growing season?

Watch our on-demand webinar, "Introducing Terramar: A New Way to Help Row Crops Stand Up to Stress," to hear:

  • How Terramar improves crop tolerance to abiotic stresses while enhancing nutrient uptake

  • Why Terramar is a good fit for any row crop program, including corn, soybean, and wheat

  • Details about application timing, trial results, and more

Intended for foliar use in row crops, Terramar delivers increased nutrient uptake and enhanced stress mitigation to optimize plant health and contribute to enhanced yield.

Terramar combines two unique technology platforms with complimentary functions to improve plant performance and help crops "Stand Up to Stress":

  • Carbon-Based Technology, or CBT. CBT is derived from biologically converted leonardite, a carbon source. CBT enhances nutrient uptake and provides key carbon derivatives for additional energy to optimize plant performance

  • Marine-Based Technology, or MBT. MBT is derived from biologically converted kelp. MBT improves crop tolerance to abiotic stressors such as heat, drought, salt, and cold, which can represent significant yield-limiting factors.

Terramar is compatible with key crop inputs, including foliar nutrition, insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides, for maximum application flexibility. Multiple field trials validate the effectiveness of Terramar as an addition to crop protection (herbicide, insecticide or fungicide) and nutritional programs.

Terramar can be used in combination with early, mid-season, or late-season foliar applications to mitigate stress and improve nutrient uptake. Foliar applications deliver its unique set of highly active, metabolite-based compounds for quick absorption through the leaf tissue of the plant.

Terramar is exclusively available from Nutrien Ag Solutions.

Watch the webinar today to learn how Terramar can help row crops stand up to stress.

Watch the Webinar

 

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[Interview] Employing Sustainable Technologies to Enhance Yield
May 4, 2023 — Posted By Agricen

Wity-radio-down on farmAgricen's Scott Lay recently spoke with Dennis Michelsen of WITY Radio about sustainable plant health technologies growers can employ this season to enhance yield and ROI. 

Dennis - WITY Radio: Agricen has a booklet about the company's sustainable plant health technologies. Tell us more about that. 

Scott - Agricen: Sustainable practices or technologies can be employed in real-life intensive managed production systems, and not at the expense of yield. They can enhance yield and productivity.

Our technologies, they either benefit the plant, benefit the soil, or both. If we can pair those technologies with traditional production practices, that’s a win-win.

Dennis - WITY Radio: One of the products you talk about is Accomplish MAX. Sometimes when we get a later planting, the crop doesn’t have a chance to get a good, deep root structure to get through those dry periods in the summer. Accomplish MAX could help avoid some of those stresses.

Scott - Agricen: Last year, Accomplish MAX was treated on nearly 2 million acres. It’s an in-furrow product used with starter fertilizers, with an average 7 to 8 bushel yield response in corn. If you can minimize early season stresses and enhance the amount of nutrients available to the plant, that plant has a better chance of yield.

Dennis - WITY Radio: Extract PBA is about making sure you get all the benefit out of the nutrients you’re already putting down in your soil.

Scott - Agricen: There are hundreds of dollars’ worth of nutrients that every farmer in the US has already paid for, which are already in the soil profile or in the prior year’s residue. Extract PBA is a broadcast application designed to accelerate Mother Nature’s work in mineralizing those nutrients into a plant-available form.

Dennis - WITY Radio: Another product you have is Terramar, which my listeners might not be as familiar with.

Scott - Agricen: Last year we had an informal introduction of Terramar with tremendous results. It’s a foliar or post application timing for corn or soybean crops. While we can’t control temperature, precipitation or other environmental conditions, we know those environmental conditions have a tremendous impact on a crop's ability to yield. Terramar minimizes heat and drought stress to preserve the yield potential that exists in that corn or soybean plant.

Dennis - WITY Radio:  And Terramar can be combined with other products that you're already going to be making the pass in the field with.

Scott - Agricen: If we can embed our technology in applications that are already taking place so that farmers don’t have to alter what they are already doing, we’ve got a better likelihood of experiencing success.

Accomplish MAX, Extract PBA and Terramar are available from Nutrien Ag Solutions.

This interview was edited for length and clarity. You can listen to the interview below or on Agricen's YouTube channel.

Download the Sustainable Plant Health Technology Overview to learn more about Accomplish MAX, Extract PBA and Terramar.

Download the Bulletin

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Protecting Yield Potential from Heat and Drought Stress
August 8, 2022 — Posted By Agricen

With many areas of the country in need of moisture, Agricen’s Scott Lay spoke with WITY Radio's Dennis Michelsen about Terramar, a new technology for the row crop market that can help growers protect their yield potential from heat and drought stress.

Dennis - WITY Radio: When it comes to wanting a little more rain and being concerned about stress in our corn and soybeans this time of year, that’s where Terramar comes into play.

Scott - Agricen: Right. Terramar is a new technology for the Midwest corn and soybean markets. We’ve already had it commercially available in high-value fruit and vegetable crops in Florida, California and the coastal areas.

Terramar is a combination of a biological extract of kelp and a carbon source that does two things. One, it helps to minimize effect of heat and drought stress in the plant. We’re trying to protect the yield potential that exists by minimizing yield robbing factors, like heat and drought stress, which are all too often an impediment to yield as the crop matures.

Secondly, it helps with nutrient uptake. As we move through the pollination and flowering to grain-fill phases in both corn and soybeans, it is a critical time in terms of nutrient consumption and nutrient demand. So the more “groceries” we can get into that plant, the better chance we have to optimize yield.

Dennis - WITY Radio: It really doesn’t matter whether they are being applied to a fruit or nut crop or to corn and soybeans. The actual game plan works similar.

Scott - Agricen: That’s very much the case. The factors that drive or impact yield are very comparable across crops. We’ve learned a great deal through our experiences in fruit and vegetable crops, and over the last couple of years we’ve screened Terramar in corn and soybeans and had very consistent results across a wide geography in the Midwest.

Dennis - WITY Radio: This is the perfect time for folks to start experimenting to see what Terramar can do in their fields. If you look at the weather, we are going to need to combat those high stress situations with smarter agronomy.

Scott - Agricen: Heat and drought-like conditions impact yield. That’s a fact. Now, the technology in Terramar is not a replacement for precipitation, nor does it make a 95-degree day 75 degrees. But if you can minimize the impact of that heat and/or drought stress in the plant, that’s a positive thing. It buys you more time and allows the plant to respire more efficiently, create more chlorophyll and undergo more photosynthesis, and that leads to a more consistent and productive yield.

Dennis - WITY Radio: You talked about the wide array of field trials ranging from areas like Kansas that are notoriously dry at this time of year to areas like Central Indiana that get more typical weather. The return on investment and the return in bushels has been quite amazing.

Scott - Agricen: In terms of yield impact, our average across a wide range of corn trials is in that 6 to 8 bushel range and in soybeans we’re looking at a 3 to 5 bushel range. There are instances where conditions are more challenging with heat and drought stress where we've seen upwards of a 10 to 12 bushel response in corn and similar in soybeans. We’re confident in the consistency that Terramar will deliver in terms of yield impact. 

Terramar is available from Nutrien Ag Solutions.

This interview was edited for length and clarity. You can listen to the full interview below or on Agricen's YouTube channel.

 

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Three Ways to Combat Drought Stress in Corn
July 25, 2022 — Posted By Agricen

droughtDrought stress can cause significant yield reductions in corn, so it's important for growers to proactively consider ways they can reduce the impact of dry conditions on their crops.

Although growers can't control the weather, they do have options that can help them improve plant health and strengthen their corn crop's stress tolerance in the face of drought.

What Options Do Corn Growers Have for Combating Drought Stress?

Approaches for combatting the effects of drought or dry conditions include:

  • Strobilurin-containing fungicides.
    Strobilurin-containing fungicides have known beneficial effects on corn development, even in the absence of disease.

  • Foliar nutritionals.
    Foliar nutritionals can be added to fungicide applications for even stronger plant health effects. Nutrient absorption in the leaf tissue is highly efficient and can partially make up for shortfalls in root absorption when the soil is dry. In addition, applying relatively small amounts of foliar nutritionals can prompt plants to work harder at extracting nutrients from the soil and can increase drought tolerance.

  • Foliar- or soil-applied biostimulants, biologicals or plant hormone technologies.
    Products in this category can stimulate the plant and/or soil microbes to improve crop tolerance to drought stress and allow energy to go into yield, rather than stress response.

One product in the last category is Terramar, available from Nutrien Ag Solutions. Terramar is designed to improve both nutrient uptake and plant response to weather-related stress, including drought or dry conditions. It can be applied in season to help corn stand up to drought and heat stress.
 
In a field trial from Illinois (photo below), Terramar was foliar-applied on V5 corn experiencing heat and drought stress. Only four days later, the treated corn looked visibly healthier.

Terramar-corn 01

A field trial from Kansas (photo below) also shows a visual improvement with foliar-applied Terramar on 12-leaf corn that was experiencing both drought and heat stress. The benefits can be seen both above and below the soil, with a healthier looking plant that has a greater stalk diameter, larger root ball, deeper roots, and heavier brace roots.

Terramar-corn 02

What's more, the Terramar-treated plants had 57% greater soil penetration, pulling at the 55-cm level on the water probe measurement, compared to the untreated plants that were not yet pulling at even the 45-cm level when measurements were taken.

With many areas of the nation experiencing hot, dry weather, it's the right time to consider these tools as a way to potentially reduce the total impact of drought conditions. 

Learn more about the benefits of the marine-based technology found in Terramar by downloading the corn and soybean bulletin.

Download the Study

 

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How Accomplish MAX Helps Mitigate the Effects of Salt Stress on Crops
January 24, 2022 — Posted By Agricen

Although crops take up many salts in the form of nutrients, they can be adversely affected if more salt is added to the soil system than can be taken up by the plant or flushed out of the root zone. This is especially a concern in irrigated cropping systems, where dissolved salts from irrigation water can lead to soil salinity problems that compound over time. Salts in applied fertilizers can also contribute to soil salinity.

Soils that are high in salts can limit water uptake, impede nutrient uptake, and negatively impact seed germination and crop development. Plants that do survive will exhibit less vigor, have slower physiological development and show signs of stress, preventing full yield potential from being realized. Taking steps to manage soil salinity is therefore critical to having balanced soil for optimal plant growth and productivity.

Accomplish MAX, which is available through Nutrien Ag Solutions, is a next-generation biocatalyst designed to help plants better tolerate salt and other abiotic stresses.01-21 Accomplish Max saline environmentPlant germinated in presence of 120 mM salt, with and without Accomplish MAX. Images were taken 10 days after treatment. Note longer roots, more vigorous plant with Accomplish MAX.

Accomplish MAX mitigates salt stress with a three-pronged effect:

  • Frees up calcium from soil chemistry, which allows sodium to be displaced from the exchange site and flushed from the root zone.
  • Encourages plants to uptake additional potassium, which increases the K+/Na++ ratio to offset the toxic effects of sodium.
  • Breaks soluble salts apart, thereby lowering electrical conductivity.

Recommended for use in liquid starter applications, Accomplish MAX contains biochemistry proven to increase nutrient availability in the soil combined with a highly soluble kelp-based extract to increase crop tolerance to abiotic stresses like salinity from applied fertilizers. Accomplish MAX can be an important addition to any fertility or management program for crops affected by salt stress.

Download the Accomplish MAX salt stress bulletin.

Download the Bulletin

 

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[Booklet] Maritime Improves Plant Growth to Improve Crop Quality
April 6, 2020 — Posted By Agricen

Maritime Educator ImageThe new Maritime® product booklet is now available online.

Maritime increases nutrient and plant functioning to give growers unmatched seed germination, plant growth, and nutrient uptake. It can be used to enhance crop growth and performance both under positive growing conditions and under stress conditions from environmental factors such as drought, heat, or salinity.

The Maritime educational booklet covers:

  • Product benefits
  • How Maritime works
  • Trial results in specialty crops, including lettuce, peppers, and celery
  • Uses and rates

What is Maritime?

Maritime is a highly soluble solution of biologically extracted kelp that can be used by growers to augment a balanced crop nutrition system. Maritime stimulates soil microbiota, improves plant growth, and reduces crop stress for better crop quality and yield.

Maritime holds both OMRI and WSDA organic certification. 

Learn more about Maritime kelp technology for agriculture by downloading the digital booklet.

Access the Maritime Booklet

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