Make Every Seed Count
Inside every bag of soybean seed, there are 140,000 reasons to protect your investment. If the 2019 growing season taught us anything about seed, it’s prepare for the unexpected. We started the year with a major threat to soybean seed quality from the seed-borne disease called Phomopsis. Next, we struggled getting crops into the ground due to challenging weather conditions. As we moved into November, many soybean farmers, especially in the Midwestern part of the country, were racing to harvest their crop as snow began to fall. So, what does all of this mean for soybean quality next year?
Overall, there’s hope we will avoid a repeat of this year’s shortage of quality soybean seed, but many questions remain. What will final yield counts look like? How will late-season health challenges and cool/wet harvest conditions impact quality? It’s hard to anticipate the answers to these important questions. One thing we do know is an effective seed treatment can help seed come up strong, healthy, and ready to handle what the new season brings.
“You can look at a seed treatment like any good insurance policy. You have to protect your biggest investments, and for farmers, one of them is seed,” says Tony Lourens, Manager of Seed Treatment Brands at Helena Agri-Enterprises, LLC.
Some of the soybean seed sold today is represented as treated seed, but it’s important to understand that not all seed treatments are the same. Lourens encourages soybean seed buyers to always check the ingredients of any pre-treated seed to make sure they’re covered with the best protection.
“You have to have the right mix of ingredients in your seed treatment. Otherwise, your seed won’t be protected against the most damaging diseases and insects to achieve optimum yields and avoid costly replants,” Lourens says.
In the last several years, a soybean farmer’s overall seed investment continues to trend upward. With so much at stake and so many unknowns, do what you can today to make every seed count in 2020. Contact your local Helena representative for more information about our line of seed treatments.