Along with raising cattle, the DeBaillie family has been growing corn and soybeans in northwestern Illinois for over 65 years. Today, Randy, Rob and Russell DeBaillie, who are the third-generation of farmers in their family, farm around 6,000 acres of land in a longstanding no-till farming practice. Extract PBA is one of the products they rely on to help them run a successful operation.

Like other growers, the DeBaillies like to get their crops in as early as possible, usually in the last week in April. They typically plant corn at 36,000 seeds per acre in their highly productive rolling clay hills. Given their northern location in Orion, Illinois, harvest ordinarily ends around Thanksgiving.

Rob, Russell and Randy DeBaillie of Orion, Illinois - on the farm and ready to plant in an Extract-treated field.

Crop residue left on the soil surface after harvest can present both challenges and opportunities going into the next planting season. Potential tie-up of important nutrients, delayed nutrient recycling, and difficulty getting pre- and post-applied weed control coverage are some challenges growers may face. However, great opportunities for nutrient release, organic matter influences and soil moisture preservation can be captured if crop residues are properly managed.

Harvest and tillage equipment that mechanically break down residue are useful management tools, but adding a biochemical tool in the form of Extract PBA can also help growers manage and even benefit from surface crop residue, regardless of their tillage practices.

"Whether you want to release nutrients from the soil or break down your crop residue, Extract PBA does all the heavy lifting, delivering consistent ROI to the farmer," says Michael Bern, Nutrien Ag Solutions Location Manager in Galesberg, Illinois.

Yield success for this grower near Macon, Mississippi started in the fall of last year when he applied 1 gallon per acre of Extract PBA (with 1 gallon/acre of UAN 32 +15 gallons/acre of water) on cotton residue from his 2019 crop.

The grower planted corn in the spring of 2020. Where Extract PBA had been used, he realized a yield increase of +11.47 bushels per acre compared to the check, for a net ROI of $33.88 per acre with his Extract PBA application.

Already a busy period, harvest is also the time for growers to begin planning for next season's crop. Fall planning can be critical to having a less stressful planting season in the spring. Incorporating Titan XC and Extract PBA into fall plans is one way that growers can set themselves up for success in the season ahead.

Agricen's Stephen Sexton breaks down the benefits of these biocatalyst products and explains where they fit into fall programs.

Broken O Ranch in Augusta, Montana, is a farming operation that grows wheat, barley, alfalfa, flax, canola and chickpeas on about 12,000 irrigated acres.

A big concern at the ranch is how to handle crop residue without burning it. Most states around Montana have banned all burning of residue. Dale Clark, the farm manager at Broken O Ranch, feels that it's only a matter of time before the practice is banned in Montana as well. But he also has bigger issues with the practice.

“Burning residue not only takes time and labor, but it also adversely affects the availability of soil moisture because the ground becomes harder after burning," says Dale. "More than that, it negatively impacts nutrient availability. Nutrients are lost when ash is blown by the wind and redeposited or carried off.”

"At Broken O, we’ve been looking for a sustainable solution that we can implement right now,” he says.

In a demonstration conducted by Nutrien Ag Solutions in Galesburg, Illinois, Extract PBA was sprayed in fall 2017 on a corn field post-harvest. In spring of 2018, stalks were pulled and split to examine the differences in residue breakdown between treated and untreated parts of the field.

As seen in the photo, the Extract-treated stalks were in a more advanced stage of decomposition than untreated stalks by early spring. 

Extract PBA was sprayed on Nov. 29, 2017. This photo shows corn stalks from treated and untreated parts of the field that were pulled and split on March 23, 2018. 

In Northern Ohio, Nutrien Ag Solutions conducted trials to evaluate the benefits of making a fall residue or spring pre-emerge application of Extract PBA (1 gallon per acre). In these trials, Extract was applied on corn stalks in fields where soybeans would be planted as the next crop. The data shows great potential for a growers' return on investment, with healthier plants and higher pod counts when Extract PBA was used. 

In the trial results shown below, the plants from the treated areas have a more robust structure to support higher yields. Pod clusters are also tighter, with more per node compared to plants from untreated strips in the test plots.

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.

“Extracting Nutrients from Residue in Spring for Higher Fall Yields” is now available to watch on demand. 

Watch the webinar to learn: 

• Why you need to manage residue in different cropping systems - including no-till and conventional tillage
  
  
• What factors affect residue decomposition, nutrient immobilization and nutrient release - from C:N ratios and temperature to moisture and microbes
  
  
• How a spring residue application of Extract PBA benefits growers by releasing nutrients for the coming crop

You’re invited to join us for “Extracting Nutrients from Residue in Spring for Higher Fall Yields,” a webinar being held on Thursday, February 11, 2016 at 8 am and 11 am CT.