Farmers need to start thinking differently about plant yields, says Larry Lintner of Stoller. The inside-the-box approach of managing NP&K and handling weed pressure isn’t enough to truly get that-high-end yield potential out of a plant. Instead he encourages growers to use plant science from germination to harvest to keep the plant healthy, balance hormones, and make yields align to the expectations of the grower.
The people at Stoller make that happen by taking care of a plant throughout its life cycle. It starts with seed treatments to express the growth hormone earlier, and then to encourage root development. Later it involves foliar applications to help control plant stress and ending the season by pulling sugar out of the leaves to fill pods.
These steps helped develop the soybean plants on display at the Farm Progress Show; soybeans grown by Dan Arkels that are expected to break well over the 100 bushel mark. It also led to corn jumping out of the ground early to achieve results worth displaying.
“Quite a dramatic effect when you can add just one to two more kernels per row and maybe one to two rows on the average (its always two rows more), but one to two more rows per ear will tremendously impact your yield,” Lintner told me.
Learn mores about Stoller and how they can help improve genetic potential in my interview here: [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/FPS16-Stoller-Linter.mp3″ text=”Interview with Larry Lintner, Stoller”]