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.

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.

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

By Steve Roehl, Sr. Technical Sales Agronomist, Nutrien Ag Solutions

At harvest, impressive corn yields also leave behind an impressive amount of leaf, stalk and root mass material in the form of stover or residue. While some may call this "corn trash", the sage farmer and agronomist knows that residue is actually a treasure rich in essential crop nutrients, including nitrogen (N), potassium (in the form of K₂O), phosphorus (in the form of P₂O₅), and sulfur (S). 

Crop residue also poses some challenges. Fields with heavy residue levels can be slower to warm in the spring and can pose issues related to planting (e.g., stalks and root balls can hamper planter disc openers and depth-gauge wheels) and crop establishment. In addition, heavy amounts of crop residue can hinder the ability of soil microbes to release nutrients from the residue. This is especially true for nitrogen and sulfur, which are effectively "tied up" (immobilized) by soil microbes that use them as a food source to break down residue. These immobilized nutrients only become available to the crop once the microbes finish digesting the residue and release (mineralize) the nutrients to the soil.

For these reasons, some forethought about residue and nutrient management this fall can pay dividends to your 2023 crop. For years, Nutrien Ag Solutions customers have utilized a fall or spring application of Extract PBA to maximize nutrient release from crop residues and the soil, extend the availability of nutrients later into the season, and optimize yield potential. This biochemical-based technology is an effective way to release bound nutrients while also making seedbed preparation and planting processes more effective in the spring.

Chad Henderson, an XtremeAg farmer in Madison, Alabama, trialed Titan XC-treated dry fertilizer on his farm in 2022. He saw impressive results in both his irrigated and dryland corn. 

"We can't wait to try this again," says Chad. "We had great results with this product."

In the trial, Chad compared his standard strip till fertilizer blend to the same fertilizer blend treated with Titan XC at 1 pint per ton.  Both treated and untreated fertilizer blends were applied at 180 pounds per acre. Two different hybrids were in the planter, and each treatment (treated vs untreated dry fertilizer) was replicated 3 times for each hybrid in both irrigated and non-irrigated parts of the field.

In irrigated corn, Chad's average corn yield was 276.7 bu/a with his standard fertilizer blend and 293.8 bu/a with the Titan XC-treated dry fertilizer, for a yield advantage of +17.1 bu/a compared to the check. 

How can growers make the most of every nutrient they apply, especially with high fertilizer costs? One way is to focus on improving the efficiency of dry fertilizers that are spread in the fall or spring.

Watch our on-demand webinar, "How to Make Your Dry Fertilizer Work Harder and Go Farther," to learn:

• Why the amount of fertilizer you apply doesn't always equate to the amount of fertility available to your crop
  
  
• How next-generation technology can enhance your fall dry fertilizer program for better nutrient availability and uptake in the spring
  
  
• How Titan XC can help you get more out of every prill you’ve paid for by giving your crop greater access to applied fertility
  
  

With fall fertilizer season approaching, Agricen’s Scott Lay spoke with WITY Radio about using Titan XC to get more efficiency and return on investment out of dry fertilizer applications. 

Dennis - WITY Radio: I think Titan XC is going to be a great addition to producers' game plans here in the fall.

Scott - Agricen: Titan XC has been available for about 10 years now. With each successive fall, use increases as folks better understand the benefits of what a fertilizer efficiency technology can provide for their operations.