Agricen'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.

In the NCGA's 2022 National Corn Yield Contest, nearly three dozen winners used Agricen's biocatalyst technologies in their winning programs. They include four farmers who took top places at the national level and 31 who took top places in their states. 🏆

The winning growers used one or more of the following products in their corn fertility programs: Accomplish MAX, Extract PBA, Levitate, Maritime, Terramar and Titan XC. All of these products are available from our partner, Loveland Products, through Nutrien Ag Solutions.

In an irrigated corn trial conducted in Benzie county, Michigan in 2022, adding Accomplish MAX to the grower's standard practice (GSP) starter fertilizer led to impressive yield results. 

Accomplish MAX was added to the GSP starter fertilizer at two different rates (1 pint/acre and 1 quart/acre, the recommended rate) and then compared to the GSP alone. The GSP 2x2 starter fertilizer blend consisted of UAN 28% (7.5 gal/acre), ammonium thiosulfate (ATS, 3 gal/acre), 10-34-0 (7.25 gal/acre), and Pro Zinc 10+ (0.25 gal/acre). The grower's fertility program also included a dry fertilizer broadcast application of 46-0-0 (300 lbs/acre) plus 0-0-60 (100 lbs/acre) applied over corn stubble. The field was no-till, corn on corn.

Adding Accomplish MAX at either rate provided both a yield advantage and a return on investment (ROI) for the grower.

With planters running soon, Agricen's Scott Lay spoke with WITY Radio about utilizing Extract PBA and Accomplish MAX in the spring to minimize early season challenges related to nutrient availability and weather-related stress.

Dennis - WITY Radio: It has been an incredibly mild winter, but Mother Nature likes to change things up and throw a lot of stress our way, and that’s what the products from Agricen are so good at. It’s really a simple concept: Draw out more nutrients and help with the stress.

Scott - Agricen: That’s the essence of it. If you can’t minimize challenges with regard to weather-related stresses or the challenges that soil profiles present in terms of allowing plants to access nutrients, you’re not going to maximize your return.

Dennis - WITY Radio: Talk a little bit about your Extract product.

Scott - Agricen: We designed Extract for the farmer who does not utilize liquid in-furrow starter applications but wants to get that starter-like effect. It is applied in pre-plant broadcast applications with herbicide or liquid fertilizer.

Salt stress can significantly hamper soybean germination and development. Since Accomplish MAX is designed to help crops better tolerate abiotic stresses such as salt and cold, the Nutrien Ag Solutions Carolinas Division set up a trial in Ahoskie, North Carolina, to evaluate how well Accomplish MAX could help mitigate the effects of fertilizer salt stress on a soybean crop at planting.  

To intentionally elicit an adverse salinity response, 10-27-0 starter fertilizer was applied at 5 gallons per acre in-furrow with the soybean seed. Accomplish MAX was applied at 1 quart per acre with the liquid starter fertilizer on half of the field.

The addition of Accomplish MAX to the liquid starter fertilizer had a positive impact on germination and establishment in soybeans under fertilizer salt stress.

How can growers optimize early-season crop health and get more from their investment in their fertilizers, crops, and soil?

Watch our on-demand webinar, "Early Season Opportunities to Enhance Plant Nutrition & Health," to hear:

• How Accomplish MAX and Extract PBA improve nutrient availability in the soil
• Where these biocatalyst products fit into spring crop plans
• Details from recent corn and soybean trials

Soil health is the foundation of a successful crop. In our short video, The Plant Is Secondary, growers talk about their approach to improving their soil and keeping it healthy, including the role that Accomplish biocatalyst technology plays. 

"If your soil's healthy, obviously your crop's going to do what it needs to do," says Heath Cutrell, who farms in Virginia and across the state line into North Carolina.

Iowa farmer Kelly Garrett adds, "If we could take care of the biology of the soil, the plant is secondary. It's what happens when we do a good job with the biology." 

The corn growers in the video have seen firsthand how Accomplish technology can help with healthier soils and better nutrient availability for their crops. 

"Because of the Accomplish we're feeding the microbes, we're pushing that microbial activity and the mineralization, and we've giving ourselves nutrients," Don Stall, who farms in Michigan, says. "My soil tests have climbed and that's due to that fodder breaking down and returning that nutrient to us. It's a big deal."

As growers start crop planning for the upcoming season, where do fertilizer enhancers fit in? 

In a recent episode of Nutrien Ag Solutions' "The Future. Faster." podcast, Agricen's Dr. Brian Cornelious discusses where different fertility enhancement products—specifically Accomplish MAX, Extract PBA, Maritime, Prologue, and Titan XC—fit into growers' programs to help them more strategically manage their inputs.

"A lot of the Agricen products are very focused on nutrient efficiency and nutrient availability. And then, of course, we've got other products that focus on stress mitigation," says Brian.

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.

Typical spring conditions create a challenging environment for a young crop. Too much or too little water, cold temperatures, and fertilizer salts may slow early season plant growth and can rob you of yield potential. 

Accomplish MAX, a new product available through Nutrien Ag Solutions, is designed to help you take on these challenges while also driving yield.

Watch our on-demand webinar, "Minimizing Crop Stresses for Increased Yields," to learn:

• How Accomplish MAX can help your crops succeed with "More Nutrients, Less Stress"
  
  
• Why this combination of proven biochemistry and cutting-edge kelp technology provides significant agronomic benefits
  
  
• How Accomplish MAX has performed in recent corn and cotton trials