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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.

As seen in the photo below, soybeans planted in the untreated part of the field struggled with germination and establishment, while those planted where the Accomplish MAX treatment was applied were up and established more quickly.

Learn more by downloading the Accomplish MAX salt stress bulletin.

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."

"Over the years, we've got high phosphorus levels from manure applications. Even though we have such high P levels in the soil, we just can't get it into the plant. [Our dealer] said 'Here's a product, Accomplish, try that,' and right off the bat we were 0.1, 0.15 higher on our tissue samples. So year after year, we started running a little bit more, and the more we were running, the less commercial fertilizer we would have to buy," Indiana grower Kevin Kalb notes.

University of Illinois' Dr. Fred Below also weighs in.

"What I like to think of a product like Accomplish as is that it's trying to capture the essence of the value that's in that manure," he says. "They called it a fertilizer catalyst because one thing it does is it helps make immobile nutrients more available. There is a whole, vast source of nutrients in the soil, and if we can make some of those more available, that has a real value."

You can watch the video below.

See more by browsing our YouTube channel or by watching our film, Last Stand. 

We are proud to announce that our farming film, Last Stand, and three related short videos took home Telly Awards this year. The Telly Awards honor excellence in video and television across all screens.

Last Stand, a movie about the joys and challenges of being a farmer that was filmed during the 2020 growing season, was recognized with both a Silver and a Bronze Telly. It is available to watch as both a short, 20-minute version and an in-depth, hour-long film.

The other Telly Winners were the short videos Religious Experience, You'd Never Go Without It, and The Whole World Can Benefit, which can be viewed below. All of the winning videos were produced by the team at Light Work Productions.

Religious Experience

Silver Winner: Non-broadcast - Lifestyle Category

You'd Never Go Without It

Silver Winner: Non-broadcast - Sales Category

The Whole World Can Benefit

Bronze Winner: Non-broadcast - Sustainability Category

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.

In addition to Kelly and Heath, the video features growers Don Stall (Michigan) and Kevin Kalb (Indiana). These farmers all have had winning entries in the NCGA Corn Yield Contest in recent years. Agricen's product technologies, including Accomplish, Extract PBA and Titan XC, have been part of their winning programs.

"You have to use products that work if you want to be chasing these kind of yields," says Kevin.

See their stories below.

You can also hear more from each grower by watching the full version of Last Stand, also available on our YouTube channel.

Farmers have a story to tell, and we wanted to capture it. During the 2020 growing season, Agricen hired a film crew to document the experiences of growers from four different farm operations in the United States. The result is Last Stand, a movie that follows some of America's top farmers as they try to grow the highest yields possible in a season full of challenges. The film can be watched by visiting LastStand.ag.

“While you can never predict what the growing season will be like, the 2020 season certainly did manage to throw many surprises into the mix. Excessive rain and hurricanes, the historic derecho in Iowa and across the upper Midwest – and that’s just the weather,” says Michael Totora, president and CEO of Agricen. “We think this is an important film that not only gives viewers a unique glimpse into the lives of the featured farmers, but also into the lives of farmers across the U.S. in 2020.”

The farmers featured in the film have a passion for farming and produced some of the highest corn yields in the nation in recent years. They also have the humor, grit and resilience to help them succeed at the job.

In Last Stand, you’ll meet:

• Don Stall – A former Marine, Don still reflects on the lessons he learned in the Marine Corps to help him face the challenges of being a farmer. Don farms in Michigan.

• Kelly Garrett – Kelly farms with his father and three sons in Iowa, where they work cattle and grow corn, soybeans and winter wheat.

• Heath Cutrell – Heath is a third-generation corn, soybean and wheat grower farming in Virginia and across the state line in North Carolina.

• Kevin and Shawn Kalb – Kevin and Shawn farm with their children in Southern Indiana, where they produce corn, soybeans and turkeys, and can often be found smashing state and national corn yield records.

• Dr. Fred Below & Connor Sible – Dr. Below and PhD student Connor Sible are from the Crop Physiology Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where they research factors influencing corn and soybean productivity.

Pictured above are top producers Don Stall (top L), Kelly Garrett (top R), Heath Cutrell (bottom L) and Kevin and Shawn Kalb (bottom R).

Another factor that ties the growers together is that they have used Agricen's product technologies in their high-yielding programs.

“Several years ago, we noticed that a number of growers with top corn yields at the state and national levels used our product technologies in their production programs,” says Totora. “With Last Stand, we set out to dig into that, but it quickly became much more. Their stories, as captured in the film, are deeply personal, yet also familiar to farmers everywhere.”

Last Stand, filmed by agriculture documentary veterans Light Work Productions, is the second long-form film about farming developed by Agricen. Agricen’s previous film about agriculture, Prove It to Me, which followed five farmers from Arkansas and Iowa during the 2015 growing season, is also available to view.

Explore the Last Stand trailers or visit laststand.ag to watch the full film. 

In 2018, no fewer than five national winners and seven state winners of the NCGA's National Corn Yield Contest used Agricen's biocatalyst technology on their winning acres. We are fortunate to be represented in the best practices of many leading growers, and humbled by the opportunity to help transform grower productivity.

Before the start of this year's harvest, we had the opportunity to meet up with some of the 2018 NCGA winners to celebrate their success last season. Here are some of the folks we are honored to say have used Accomplish LM, Titan XC or Extract PBA as part of their winning strategy. 

2018 National Winners

• Don Stall, 1st place, Irrigated Corn Category (477.69 bu/a). Don Stall started farming at age 14, when he began cultivating 31 acres for a school project. Following graduation, he served for six years in the Marines, then operated a beef and cash crop operation. Don eventually moved to an all cash crop operation, and he currently farms 2,800 acres of corn, soybeans, and wheat in Charlotte, Michigan. In his "spare time," he serves his local community, both as the Township Supervisor (as he has done for the past 24 years!) and on the board of his county's fire department.

  Don has been entering the NCGA Corn Yield Contest since 2003, when he noticed that he was already achieving yields comparable to the growers who were winning the contest. He has been the Michigan high yield champion for nine years in a row. In both 2017 and 2018, Don won first place nationally in the irrigated corn category, and his winning yield of 477.69 bu/a in 2018 also placed him as the overall yield champion in the United States.

  Don credits a systems approach to his success. "There is no one answer to achieving high yields. It is a system approach, and you must understand your soils better than anyone else."

  Don also treats all of his dry fertilizer with Titan XC to help make the most of his applied nutrition, and he has also used other biocatalyst products in his program. As he says, "Biochemistry is intriguing and interesting. I believe these products are needed in today’s farming."

• Kevin Kalb, 1st place, AA Non-Irrigated Corn (388.07 bu/a), Shawn Kalb, 1st place, AA No-Till/Strip-Till Non-Irrigated (343.0 bu/a) & Nikia Kalb, 3rd place, AA Non-Irrigated Corn (343.23 bu/a). The Kalbs and their four children (including third-place winner, Nikia) grow soybeans and corn in the small town of Dubois, Indiana. They also run a turkey operation, producing over 1.8 million tom turkeys in the last 12 years.

  Kevin and Shawn have been entering the NCGA Corn Yield Contest since 2007, winning 12 national titles in the non-irrigated division. Both Kevin and Shawn have had back-to-back, first-place national wins in their respective categories over the past two years (2017 and 2018).

  In 2018, Kevin achieved his personal best yield in the contest, achieving 388.07 bu/a in the AA Non-Irrigated Corn category.

  The Kalb family can also be seen on the farm reality television show, Corn Warriors.

• Tommy & Valerie Cartrite, 3rd place, Irrigated Corn (350.63 bu/a). Hailing from Sunray, Texas, Tommy and Valerie also won first place in their state competition.

2018 State Winners

• Stuart Askew, 1st place, A No-Till/Strip-Till Non-Irrigated, North Carolina (274.58 bu/a) 
• Connor & Kelly Garrett, 1st place, No-Till / Strip-Till Irrigated, Iowa (326.05 bu/a)
• Tommy & Valerie Cartrite, 1st place, Irrigated, Texas (350.63 bu/a)
• David Hults, 2nd place, No-Till/Strip-Till Irrigated, Idaho (299.27 bu/a) 
• Leslie Lindner, 2nd place, AA Non-Irrigated, Missouri (299.99 bu/a)
• Chris Lindner, 3rd place, AA Non-Irrigated, Missouri (294.35 bu/a)
• David Kolb, 3rd place, Irrigated, Minnesota (259.89 bu/a)

It's starting to matter not just what producers grow, but also how they grow it. Biocatalyst technologies play a role by making fertilizer applications more efficient and more cost effective, while also helping growers achieve their best yields. 

As this season's harvest comes in, we wish the best of luck to all of the growers who are competing in the 2019 corn yield contest.

(UPDATE: Learn about some of the 2019 corn yield contest winners who used biocatalyst technology.)

Learn more about biocatalyst technologies by downloading the Biocatalyst Technology FAQ.

Results from cotton, corn and soybean trials conducted in North Carolina and Virginia show how Titan XC can optimize yield potential by enhancing the availability of applied P&K within an annual cropping cycle.

In cotton, treating dry fertilizer with Titan XC led to a yield increase of 328 lbs of lint/acre compared to untreated fertilizer, for a return on investment of over $203/acre for the grower.

Corn trials conducted at five locations in the mid-North Carolina and Virginia region showed an average yield increase of 10.4 bushels/acre with Titan XC-treated dry fertilizer compared to untreated, with an average ROI of $31.60/acre.

Finally, soybean trials conducted at six locations in North Carolina demonstrated an average yield increase of 3.98 bushels/acre when Titan XC-treated fertilizer was used, with an average ROI of $28.84/acre.

Learn more about using Titan XC as an agronomic tool in your dry fertilizer program by viewing our Titan XC featured studies. 

Growers know that uniform corn emergence is a must for achieving great yields. Recent research shows that a delay in emergence of just 12 to 14 hours can affect yield potential.

In side by side field trials at three different locations led by North Carolina State University cropping systems specialist Dr. Ron Heiniger, an in-furrow application of Accomplish LM promoted uniform corn emergence, increased row and kernel number, and increased ear weight by 1/8 lb compared to check (10-27-0 applied in a 2x2 band). Uniform emergence was associated with higher yields: Accomplish LM increased the average yield by +11.5 bushels per acre.

Accomplish LM is a nutrient use efficiency product that offers concentrated biochemistry tin an easy-to-handle liquid form.  Formulated for broadcast and starter fertilizer applications, it helps growers get the most out of their crop fertility programs by increasing nutrient availability and uptake and by promoting root growth and development. 

Use Accomplish LM this spring for more uniform crop emergence and the potential for higher yields at harvest.

Interested in more information on Accomplish LM in corn starter programs? Read our starter booklet.