The BigYield Spotlight – BigSweetYield

Kent Kauffman discusses BigSweetYield, the cold-processed sweetener product from BigYield.us.

Listen to Kent Kauffman of the BigYield.us team and Kyle Hill, Ag 1280 Farm Director, each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on Ag 1280 KDKD-AM. The segments air at 7:15 am and again at 12:15 pm.

This segment originally aired on May 19, 2017.

Audio Transcription

Kyle: Once again we have a BigYield Spotlight. I’m Kyle Hill visiting with Kent Kauffman of BigYield.us. Good to have you back in the studio today.

Kent: Thanks for having me Kyle.

Kyle: Today we’re talking about carbon usage in plants. Of course carbon is one of the building blocks of life. Tell us a bit more about how this impacts our crops.

Kent: The biggest thing is that plants produce most of their carbon through photosynthesis, where they use that energy from the sun, they split that carbon dioxide out of the air, then they make carbon. They use this carbon to grow, and they also use it to trade. Basically with all the microbes in the soil, they trade this carbon back-and-forth for other essential nutrients that they need. The plant actually doesn’t process a lot of these nutrients. It uses those microbes to make these things for it, then produces the carbon for those microbes. It’s kind of like an economy where people are trading back-and-forth. The same thing happens in your stomach, where you have a bunch of different microbes that help you process your food. Plants have this around their roots. In as much as 30 to 50 percent of the energy that a plant creates in photosynthesis is used to feed these microbes in the soil.

Kyle: Are there ways to jump-start this process in plants?

Kent: A great way is to provide a carbon directly to these microbes and your plant. Directly providing the carbon jump-starts your microbes production of those essential nutrients for your plant. It also allows the plant to conserve the energy from photosynthesis so it can use that to build a bigger and stronger plant, which gives you better roots, better stalks, better yield, more blooms, and things like that. This is also a cumulative effect. Especially if you can start off early and get those microbes going at full speed, and your plant going at full speed, they build off of each other. This really increases yield.

Kyle: How would you apply this carbon source?

Kent: On the research farm we have a product called BigSweetYield. This is our cold-processed sweetener. We apply it both in-furrow and foliar at 1 pound per acre. When we run it in-furrow, that allows it to feed the microbes directly at planting. That way they have all the carbon they need right when you get started. They don’t have to wait for your plant to come up. They don’t have to wait for your plant to start that photosynthesis. They have energy and can start giving that to your roots and to your plants immediately. This also really helps with emergence issues. It creates good, strong root development so your plant can make the most during growth. We also like to apply it foliar at critical development times (VT, R1-R3 on soybeans, etc.) because you have a lot of different things going on and want your plant as healthy as possible. You apply this carbon source and it helps out your plant by giving it carbon right there, some will go to the ground and help your microbes. It’s also very good after you’ve had a week or more of high heat and drought conditions. We found that out last year when we had those two periods of high heat and high wind. Applying the sweetener when we were going over the field helped out quite a bit, it gave us a couple bushels.

Kyle: Do you have to make a special trip to apply BigSweetYield?

Kent: No. Our BigSweetYield was designed to be tank-mixed with all conventional herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides. Every time I go over the field, I mix in the BigSweetYield at the 1 pound per acre rate. I do this for multiple reasons. A, it’s just good to get it on your crops, especially if you are doing a herbicide. The weeds like the BigSweetYield as much as crops, so it has helped the weeds to take in the herbicide and resulted in better kill rates.

Kyle: If anyone has questions about using BigSweetYield, how can they get ahold of you Kent?

Kent: They can check us out online at www.BigYield.us. They can call our toll-free line, 844-242-4367. That’s 844-242-4367. They can also check us out on Facebook, BigYield.us on there.

Kyle: Kent, we thank you very much for your perspective today as we’ve been telling everyone about BigSweetYield. We look forward to more of our conversations talking about everything that BigYield.us has available.

Kent: Thank you Kyle.