Corn undergoes a period of rapid nitrogen uptake after the V8 growth stage and through tassel and silking. If nitrogen is not readily available to the corn plant as it enters this period, it can limit yield potential.

With UAN, this is especially applicable to the urea portion of the fertilizer (comprising 50% of the UAN), which has to be converted into ammonium before the plant can use it. Enhancing a sidedress UAN application with Extract PBA, which accelerates nutrient mineralization and recycling, can ensure that the crop has the nitrogen it needs in that 21-day period of rapid uptake without falling short.

Not all forms of nitrogen in UAN are readily available for crop uptake when applied. How can growers get the most out of every unit of UAN sidedress they apply to help them reach their maximum yield potential?

Watch the on-demand webinar, "How to Enhance UAN Sidedress for Maximum Corn Yields," to learn:

• How to improve the efficiency and efficacy of UAN sidedress applications
  
  
• When growers should apply UAN sidedress for optimal benefits
  
  
• Why biocatalyst and C² technologies are a good fit in sidedress nitrogen programs
  
  
• How Extract PBA and Blackmax 22 can help ensure that applied nitrogen is available during peak crop demand, helping you maximize your UAN sidedress investment

With planting wrapping up, Agricen’s Scott Lay sat down with WITY Radio’s Dennis Michelsen to discuss how Extract PBA can enhance sidedress nitrogen applications.

Dennis - WITY Radio: With the wet spring, I think it makes a product like Extract PBA even more important this year.

Scott - Agricen: With the later planting, advancing the crop through all of its physiological stages from emergence on out is critical. One way we can do that is by increasing nutrient availability with Extract PBA to hasten maturity and move the crop through its growth phases as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

Dennis - WITY Radio: There’s no doubt from the trials that have been done over the years that Extract PBA really does help improve the efficiency of a sidedress application of liquid nitrogen. How and why does this work so well?

Scott - Agricen: By incorporating Extract PBA in a sidedress UAN 28 or 32 application, we’re able to increase the pool of available nitrogen by mineralizing more nutrients that are already in the soil profile—in other words, converting that nitrogen into an inorganic form the plant can use. And our university studies have shown that we’re able to increase the available nitrate levels by about 10 percent with Extract PBA, giving the applied nitrogen a higher level of efficiency.

With the spring planting season starting, Agricen’s Scott Lay spoke with Dennis Michelsen on WITY Radio’s Down on the Farm podcast about why growers might want to take a look at Extract PBA this year to get more out of nutrients they’ve already paid for.

Dennis - WITY Radio: Input costs are going up for producers, but that’s why they need to take an extra look at Extract this year. 

Scott - Agricen: Extract aids in the mineralization and release of nutrients that are already in the soil profile or in last year’s crop residue. These are nutrients that the farmer has already paid for. The object is getting more of these nutrients in a plant-available form to provide the necessary fuel to increase crop yield.

With the recent conclusion of the awards ceremony for winners of the NCGA National Corn Yield Contest at Commodity Classic, we wanted to take the time to congratulate all of the 2021 contest winners, with special thanks and recognition to those who used Agricen's biocatalyst technology in their winning programs.

In 2021, five farmers who came in top place nationally and 23 who won an award in their state incorporated one or more of the following products in their programs: Accomplish LM, Extract PBA, Levitate, Prologue, Maritime, and Titan XC.

Evan Matlock, a farmer from Greenfield, Indiana, first started using Titan XC on his farm about five years ago. In his first year of testing it, he applied Titan XC-treated dry fertilizer on a partial field of soybeans and a partial field of corn. There was an obvious difference between the parts of the field where Titan XC had and had not been applied.

“You could see it visually and we saw it on aerial imagery throughout the year,” he says. “When we took it to harvest, the corn stood out about 4.8 bushels better (with Titan XC) and the soybeans were 2.8 bushels better.”

With those results, Evan had a feeling that Titan XC might be a product he wanted to implement on a broader scale at the farm. That next year, he tested Titan XC-treated dry fertilizer on about half of his acres.

“The next year, we continued to see a yield increase,” he says.

Five years later, he uses Titan XC-treated fertilizer on every acre at Matlock Farms.

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

Accomplish MAX, a next-generation biocatalyst that provides nutrient efficiency and crop stress tolerance benefits, is now available from Loveland Products through Nutrien Ag Solutions retail locations. It is designed for use with in-furrow starters, 2x2 placement of liquid fertilizers, and liquid sidedress applications.

Accomplish MAX is a proprietary combination of proven Accomplish biocatalyst technology, which growers have used for over a decade to improve nutrient mineralization and uptake on millions of acres across the United States, and cutting-edge kelp technology designed to enhance crop tolerance to abiotic stressors such as cold temperatures, drought and fertilizer salts. 

Key benefits of Accomplish MAX:

• Increases nutrient availability and uptake by mineralizing nutrients in the soil
• Improves plant tolerance to abiotic stresses such as cold temperatures and salinity from commercial fertilizers
• Enhances overall plant performance to help growers reach their yield potential

How high can corn yield go? In our short video, "Striving for Record Corn Yields," you'll see how some corn growers try to test the limits and push for record-setting yields.

"I wish I could tell you that high yield is a recipe, like following the cookbook. By gosh, it isn't that way. High yield...it is an art form," says Dr. Fred Below of the University of Illinois in the video. 

The growers featured in the video faced multiple obstacles during filming in 2020 — from hurricanes and tropical storms in the East to a derecho that flattened crops and caused billions of dollars worth of damage across the Midwest. 

"We had a tremendous crop out there. The storm just took part of it," says Iowa farmer Kelly Garrett, whose farm was in the path of the 2020 derecho that made records as the most destructive and costliest thunderstorm disaster in U.S. history.

"We had a hurricane come in here the other day. Raise a good corn crop and then it's sad to come in here and watch it laying on the ground the way it is, broke off," says Heath Cutrell, who farms in Virginia and North Carolina.

When Illinois farmer Benjamin Rice first heard about Titan XC, he thought it sounded too good to be true. But he was trying to find a way to increase the efficiency of the dry fertilizer he was spreading on his farm, so he decided to take it to the field and try it.

Benjamin took two different 80-acre fields, split them in half, and spread the north half of each field with Titan XC-treated dry fertilizer and the south half with untreated dry fertilizer in the fall. He also took two different 40-acre fields and did the same, but spread the treated and untreated dry fertilizer in the spring.

He wanted to commit multiple years to the trial to see if Titan XC consistently worked. For three years, he repeated the side by side trials on the same fields.

“We’re on a corn and beans crop rotation. After the first year I saw a yield increase consistently on the side of the field treated with Titan XC,” he says. “After all three years, both spread in the fall or spread in the spring, my field averages made 6.8 bushel better on corn and 2.6 bushel better on beans.”