In October, the BigYield.usTM team harvested soybean test plots at the Farm Research Center in Garden City, Mo. One trial tested the effectiveness of two treatment alternatives for seven different soybean varieties. The following table summarizes the results. The two treatments are labeled as “in-furrow + foliar” and “in-furrow only.”
Provided to both treatment groups at planting, the in-furrow application was the BPIF-SoyTM product. Available from BigYield.usTM, BPIF-SoyTM combines multiple beneficial bacteria found in the BigBioYieldTM crop biological with a cold-processed sweetener. The product protects against soil-borne diseases, promotes feeder root and early plant development, supports enhanced nutrient uptake, encourages plant vigor and improves plant health. On average, when the seven soybean varieties received only the in-furrow treatment, they yielded 45.5 bushels per acre.
As indicated earlier, rows receiving the “in-furrow + foliar” application had BPIF-SoyTM applied at planting. They also had four foliar applications during the growing season: three BigSoy100TM applications and one BigSoy100DBTM application. BigSoy100TM is a cold-processed sweetener, and BigSoy100DBTM is the cold-processed sweetener blended with a crop biological. When the seven soybean varieties had both in-furrow and foliar products applied, yields averaged 52.7 bushels per acre.
Because the trial’s two treatments – the in-furrow + foliar program and the in-furrow only program – differed only in whether they received the foliar applications, yield differences between the two can be attributed to the four foliar applications. For the seven soybean varieties evaluated, yields for the in-furrow + foliar program averaged 7.2 bushels more than yields for the program that used only the in-furrow application.
To apply the foliar applications – the three BigSoy100TM and one BigSoy100DBTM applications – producers would incur $21.91 in expense. Assuming that producers would earn $10.50 per bushel for soybeans, the additional 7.2 bushels per acre provided by the in-furrow + foliar application relative to the only in-furrow application would generate $75.69 more in revenue per acre. After accounting for the foliar treatment expense, producers could expect to realize $53.78 more in profit per acre for using the in-furrow + foliar program relative to using only the in-furrow application. Thus, the four foliar applications produced a 245 percent return on investment.
For more information about BigYield.usTM products for soybeans, go to bigyield.us, and look to future BigYieldTM News newsletters.