I vividly remember driving along with my dad early in the spring when I was a boy when he suddenly slammed on the brakes because he could see the very first of the corn coming up. He made me get out of the truck to go look at the seedlings with him and my biggest memory is just how excited and hopeful he was. When you could ‘row the corn’ – see those seedlings coming up in beautiful straight lines – that was a great feeling because you knew that the corn had made it up, was on its way, and was probably going to produce something.
Farming at its most basic seems pretty easy, right? You put a seed in the ground. It germinates. It grows. It produces something you can harvest. But the heart of farming comes down to getting that plant out of the ground. That starts with asking: What’s going to produce best on my piece of ground? Am I getting everything that I need? Is there anything I can do to support that crop in its very earliest days? And, among the very most important questions: What kind of benefits do seed applied technologies really offer?
Fact #1: a seed treatment offers the simplest to manage, most sustainable, lowest environmental impact, most comprehensive early season pest management.
Fact #2: seed treatments are generally not given the credit they’re due for what they achieve.
While a comprehensive seed treatment offers disease, insect and nematode protection (as well as a biological boost), the actual benefit gained from a seed treatment in any given field and in any given year depends on the specific pressures and environmental conditions present. I appreciate insurance, especially when it’s seamlessly and cost-effectively incorporated right into the bag of seed. A seed treatment provides peace of mind: the confidence that your seed investment is protected and that, no matter what nature throws at you, your corn has the best possible opportunity for an early start and a strong defensive position.
All of our Bayer-branded corn seed today comes with a seed applied technology package integrated right into the bag. More and more farmers —in fact, now most farmers — are opting for our Acceleron Elite offerings, which provide EDC, our enhanced disease control package. As an added bonus, all of our corn seed applied technologies now also include a biological, which is an increasingly valued and appreciated part of today’s seed applied technologies.
If I could push just one key message, it’s to be intentional about your seed applied technology. Know what you’re paying for, get what you need, and appreciate the very heavy lifting seed treatments do to get crops off to a good start. And then? Be like my dad: slam on the breaks and feel that joy and wonder when those seedlings row up.
