| This is a question I am asked every month of the year from growers, salesmen, and farm managers. The answer always comes back to improved management of each individual field by changing the yield limiting factors associated with that field. The correct nutrition, correct hybrid or variety, correct population, correct trait, correct crop rotation and tillage, and correct planting date. By improving the balance of each of these, we reduce plant stress and increase the utilization of available sunshine, increasing yields.
One of the tools that I use to measure the stress of a crop is a tissue test. This tool has pointed to the need for micronutrients to assist with stress relief by improving sunshine utilization as we push for higher yields. Looking back through the last 3 years of tissue test results from the Brandt trade area, I see Zinc, Manganese, and Boron make up 90 % of the deficient micronutrient readings. Yield increases are not a surprise when these micronutrients have been applied to the crop at the correct stage of growth.
Corn begins one of its most stressed stages at the 6 leaf stage, when the plant is beginning to send a new collar of roots deep into the soil at the same time that it is adding a new leaf every 2 to 4 days. The conversion of sunshine into sugars through photosynthesis is in full swing. When you add the stress of an increased population necessary for top yields, you have no room for nutrient imbalances. This stage of growth is also the time when most post herbicides are applied and must be metabolized by the corn plant.
In soybeans, the nutrient stress begins at first bloom and continues through late pod fill. Additional soybean stress is added when insects or diseases attack soybeans during this same time period.
To address this early stress on the corn plant, BRANDT TRIO, a combination of Zinc, Manganese and Boron, has been developed. BRANDT TRIO is formulated to be foliar applied and is the first of its kind to have a molecular structure that prohibits binding to Roundup®, Liberty and other post herbicides. BRANDT TRIO averaged 3 bushels per acre yield increase in soybeans in 2009 side by sides. In corn, the yield increases ranged from 3 to more than 7 bu/ac when PROLEC was added to BRANDT TRIO.
PROLEC is the next generation drift control agent that reduces driftable fines without thickening the spray material. PROLEC improves the penetration of micronutrients, herbicides and insecticides by lifting the cuticle on waxy plants.
Ask your local Brandt Advisor on how you can capture greater productivity by mixing BRANDT TRIO with your post herbicide or insecticide to reduce stress and increase yields!
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