The importance of crop protection was reinforced during the challenging 2019 growing season. Using a crop protection plan tailored to your fields can not only help fight against early season pests and diseases but it can also help protect yield potential in both corn and soybeans.

Look no further than the 2019 growing season for evidence that protecting plant health plays an integral role in maximizing crop performance. Ensuring high performance starts with selecting the right product for your fields. But having a plan to protect the full genetic potential of the crop is also essential.

DEKALB and Asgrow Technical Agronomist Seed Jody Foutch says seed treatments are the first line of defense against soilborne pathogens. “Those diseases cause stand reduction. When you lose stand, you start losing plants. And even the plants that do make it are less healthy than they should be.”

Foutch recommends a tailored plan with the Acceleron^® seed treatment portfolio to help farmers stand up to pests and diseases. “It offers a nice mix of fungicides, insecticides, nematicides and bio-enhancers,” says Foutch. “And that combination of those products does a really good job of combating those early season diseases.”

Listen below as DEKALB and Asgrow Technical Agronomist Jody Foutch and the Brownfield Ag Network discuss crop protection solutions that helped deliver maximum crop performance during the difficult 2019 growing season.

The harsh and unpredictable weather of 2019 caused foliar diseases to develop earlier in the life cycle of crops. In corn, rather than appearing around tassel time, diseases were showing up three or sometimes four growth stages ahead of tassel. “That means these diseases had an even longer time for them to impact yield and crop performance,” Foutch says. “But fungicides like Delaro^® fungicide played a key role in helping farmers protect yield potential in those fields.”

Missouri farmer Ryan Seidler can attest to that. He saw a 30 bu/A yield increase in corn and a 6 bu/A in soybeans in fields where Delaro fungicide was used, which was especially impressive during 2019’s challenging growing season. “There has been a lot of southern rust in our area. Our fields have almost zero rust in it … zero disease,” says Seidler. “With the wet year we’ve had, if it has done this well this year then I don’t think there’s a year it couldn’t handle. Our beans are the same way. We had some start with Septoria, but we sprayed them with Delaro fungicide and it minimized the Septoria in our beans.”

When finalizing crop protection options for the 2020 growing season, Foutch encourages farmers to consider the Bayer PLUS Rewards program. “Bayer PLUS Rewards offers incentives based on purchases of eligible Bayer products, including DEKALB^® and Asgrow^® seed and Bayer herbicides and fungicides. It really supports our tailored solutions approach and helps farmers maximize yield and profitability,” Foutch says.

Bayer PLUS Rewards offers farmers a broader portfolio of crop protection products to add to their DEKALB and Asgrow seed purchases — which can help grow your operation while you protect it. Sign up today.

SIGN UP FOR EMAILS AND TEXTS

Stay up to date with the latest alerts about agronomic news, harvest results, and products and marketing updates.