Building the right seed treatment package is a tough thing to perfect. There are dozens of factors to consider … What is the viability of the treatment? Is it highly tank mixable with other treatments – such as fertilizers, fungicides, insecticides and inoculants? Does it have any influence on germination? What is the true impact to crop yield – has it been measured? Do the product labels allow the same seed treatment to be used on several crops for efficiency? These are many of the important questions – and there are more – that seed treaters ask themselves each year.
Several years ago, Innovative Ag Performance (IAP) in Delisle, Saskatchewan, was looking for a versatile seed treatment that would have measurable impact on yield, starting at the treater. They started partnering with Verdesian Life Sciences and found the answer for their growers. Kevin Genest, the sales manager at IAP, describes: “What we’ve seen is a healthier, stronger plant and root base using Accolade. It’s a multifaceted product. We can use it on all the crops in our area, and we see a yield bump on every single one of the crops.”
Accolade®, manufactured by Verdesian, is a premium seed treatment that delivers massive numbers of rhizobacteria to the root zone for maximum benefit to the emerging seedling and throughout the growing season. Accolade contains Azospirillum brasilense – a well-studied, free-living, nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Accolade strengthens and expands the plant’s root zone with these rhizobacteria which colonize the root system, leading to countless benefits: nitrogen fixation for increased plant utilization, increased nutrient uptake, enhanced stress resistance, vitamin production, siderophores and biocontrol and phosphorous solubilization. Ultimately, Accolade causes the plant to produce more roots & more root hairs further & deeper in the soil. The difference? More roots. More nutrient uptake. More yield.
“We frequently talk to growers who see their neighbor across the road has a 5-6 bushel per acre bump, and the only difference is they used Accolade,” Genest says. “We have growers that used to put Accolade on 10-15 per cent of their land, and now 100 per cent of their land is treated with Accolade.” Accolade performs especially well under the most stressful conditions. “In the area we are located, we’ve been through a pretty significant drought this year. We just had a grower using Accolade tell us ‘I don’t think that I would have had a crop this year if we didn’t put Accolade on the seed.’”
Accolade is not only a stand-alone product, but it is available in other seed treatments and inoculants from Verdesian such as: Primo GX2 for all pulse crops, Primo Pulse, LiftKit and Pre-VailTM inoculants.
The right product is incomplete without the right people behind it. Verdesian Life Sciences (“The Nutrient Use Efficiency People”) manufactures a wide portfolio of seed treatments and inoculants, fertilizer enhancers, nutrients and biostimulants. These solutions increase nutrient use efficiency and provide new management technologies to enhance crop uptake, reduce nutrient losses to the environment, and improve yields. At the end of the day, Verdesian makes farming more efficient, more sustainable, and more profitable.
“Verdesian is a really good company to work with,” Genest says. “Anytime we’ve got concerns or requests, Verdesian has dealt with them very easily. What we have is not a manufacturer/distributor relationship, but a true partnership.”
We would love to see how we can help you & your operation this season. For more information, please visit Verdesian’s website or contact Joe Olesko of Verdesian Life Sciences in Canada at joe.olesko@vlsci.com or (306) 341-4776.
Joe Olesko is vice president of Canada Sales
