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.

Using Titan XC to improve nutrient release from dry fertilizer can make a big difference when it comes to wheat germination.

In this demonstration, seventeen MESZ fertilizer prills were mixed into field soil in each tray. Prior to mixing in the fertilizer, Titan XC was sprayed on prills in the treated tray. As you can see, wheat germination is significantly advanced in the tray on the right that received the Titan XC treatment. 

Trial results from North Carolina show how Accomplish LM can offer growers wheat yield gains when broadcast in the spring. 

In a wheat trial conducted last season, Accomplish LM was applied at 2 quarts/acre in the spring along with a nitrogen urease inhibitor and UAN broadcast at 20 gallons/acre. The treated part of the field showed a wheat yield increase of 8.13 bushels/acre, compared to no treatment (UAN alone).

In this Kansas wheat trial, Titan XC provided a yield and ROI advantage when used with a banded dry fertilizer application.

Titan XC was applied at 1 pint per ton on MicroEssentials SZ (MESZ), which was placed in-furrow. Compared to the untreated MESZ, the Titan XC-treated MESZ raised wheat yields, with a 7 bu/a yield increase. With wheat prices estimated at $6.50/bu, the return on investment with Titan XC in this trial would be $43.62 per acre.

After a fertilizer application, hungry crops must wait for nutrient mineralization to occur before the applied nutrients are available to use. To speed up and enhance this process, growers can utilize Extract PBA as a nutrient release tool to improve nutrient availability and uptake. As seen in this winter wheat trial, the result is noticeably better plant performance when compared to plants grown on untreated acres.

The trial, which was conducted in heavily manured fields in Ohio, looked at the effect of adding 1 gallon per acre of Extract PBA to a grower's existing fertilizer program of 28% UAN. Wheat plants in the untreated plot were planted on October 24, 2016, while plants in the Extract-treated plot were planted a month later, on November 25, 2016. Photos were taken in April 2017.

In this trial from Attica, Indiana, Extract PBA brought in big returns on two crops in the same year.

Extract PBA was applied in the fall of 2015 on soybean stubble, and winter wheat was planted. At harvest, the crop planted where Extract was applied had an 8 bushel per acre yield advantage.

In 2016, the grower planted double crop soybeans in the same field, again gaining a yield advantage (5 bushels per acre) where Extract PBA had been applied the previous year. The combined ROI to the grower was $69/acre. 

Burndown season is here, and that offers growers a great opportunity to benefit from an application of Extract PBA on each acre. 

Below is a photo taken in early March from an ongoing wheat trial in Hardin, Kentucky. As you can see, the plant on the right–where Extract PBA was applied with a pre-emerge herbicide–is better positioned to realize top-end yield potential.

This summer, Agricen conducted a rhizobox study near our Texas headquarters to evaluate the effects of treating MicroEssentials® SZ, the Mosaic Company’s 12-40-0-10(S)-1(Zn) fertilizer, with Titan Powered by Accomplish (Titan PBA), a fertilizer catalyst from Loveland Products.