The BigYield Spotlight – Secrets to Soybean Success

Kent Kauffman discusses the secrets to soybean success, including protecting seed with a seed treatment.

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 8, 2017.

Audio Transcription

Kyle: Time once again for the BigYield Spotlight. I’m Kyle Hill visiting in studio with Kent Kauffman of BigYield.us. Welcome back.

Kent: Thanks for having me.

Kyle: So looking ahead to soybean planting, what are some of the considerations that growers should prioritize?

Kent: Well the main thing for soybean planting is that growers need to do all they can to give their soybean crop a good, strong, healthy start. So here at BigYield.us, we supply a well-balanced plant nutrition strategy so that it’s always a win-win regardless of the conditions. A well-nourished crop makes it more resilient in tough times, especially with all the soggy soil and cool weather we have been having lately. We found that treating seeds presents an opportunity to deliver essential nutrients at planting. Throughout the industry, seed treatments have become a very well recognized tool that maximize performance in your soybeans. In fact, we have an article from a University of Illinois researcher that names seed treatments as one of the main “Six Secrets to Success”.

Kyle: What are some of those other secrets?

Kent: Some of those other secrets they specifically name are weather, field fertility, foliar protection, genetics, and row spacing. Of these, weather is obviously the biggest influence, but it’s also the one you have the least amount of control over. So we can make decisions connected to the other secrets so we can help better manage our crops response to those weather conditions and maximize our yield.

Kyle: Well the cats out of the bag with those six secrets. So while we heard those, lets back up and turn our attention back to soybeans and nutrients. Which are particularly important for soybeans?

Kent: Many nutrients play a critically important role for encouraging growth and development. Two of these are cobalt and molybdenum. What these do is they effect nitrogen fixation. We know that a good nitrogen fixation supports good soybean growth and that’s ultimately what we want. We want that strong nitrogen fixation to translate into big yields and returns at harvest.

Kyle: So seed treatments can be used to supplement those nutrient levels?

Kent: Yes, so a lot of seed treatments can be used to supplement those nutrient levels. A lot of seed treatments also have fungicides and insecticides on them. One of the things we’ve been working on here at BigYield is what we can our BigYieldCoat Soy. It’s a seed treatment, but it’s a dry seed treatment coat that goes on top of what seed treatment you are already using. What it does is it supplies nine vital nutrients – two of those are cobalt and molybdenum. In our experience, the seed treated has a much more uniform emergence which is very, very important for yield. That good early and uniform emergence is important. In fact, any of the yield winners for both corn and soybeans, that is one of the primary things they focus on for finding those fields is a good emergence. So with the BigYieldCoat Soy we try to make it very easy to use. It’s designed as a dry planter box treatment. Basically you can treat bulk seed or can add it as a dry powder directly into the planter box. It’s added at 4 ounces per 100 pounds of seed. How many acres it will cover depends on your planting population and your seed size. It’s positively charged and will then stick to the seeds. It creates very consistent yield increases – we’ve seen as much as a 7.5% yield increase in soybeans with the BigYieldCoat Soy treatment.

Kyle: And that sounds like a promising treatment indeed for soybean seeds this summer. Again we’re visiting with Kent Kauffman of BigYield.us. If somebody has questions about the BigYieldCoat Soy or any of your seed treatments, how should they get ahold of you?

Kent: The ways that people can reach us, first they can go to our website, www.BigYield.us. It has all the information for our products and how they are used. They can call our toll-free line at 844-242-4367 or they can stop by the research farm off of 7 Highway. It’s 28706 S. St. Rt. 7. It’s just west of Garden City 3 or 4 miles. It’s just south of Harrisonville at Kauffman Road. You can’t miss it.

Kyle: No you can’t. We’re looking forward to heading back up there sometime soon. Kent Kauffman with BigYield.us. Good to have you in the studio today to talk about nutrients and soybean treatments. We look forward to another visit.

Kent: Thank you Kyle.