April 3, 2018
Channel Seedsman Lee Saathoff, from Griswold, Iowa, explains the return on investment he is seeing with growers in his area that are utilizing soybean seed treatments.
Key Takeaways:
- Soybean seed treatments help protect against the unpredictability of the weather.
- In Channel Seedsman Lee Saathoff’s area, he is seeing positive impacts of fungicide applications at the seedling stage but also the reproductive stage.
What soybean disease prevention strategies do you recommend to set growers up for success throughout the growing season?
Soybean seed treatment truly is a no-brainer. And I tell growers a lot, an absolute worst case scenario is you always get your money back on a seed treatment. We can't predict what the weather's going to be like, and so it's very economical insurance knowing that you're enhancing that plant and getting it up. And as the season grows along and beans, I think there's been a very big expansion in looking at high-yield soybeans and what it's taking in late-season potential nitrogen. We do a lot of fungicide and insecticide on soybeans in our area. In the last two years, return on investment has really been phenomenal. And there's a lot of excitement around fungiciding soybeans at the R3 stage and what that brings and the enhanced yield level that it's returning. And it's still about ROI.