How should you give your seed the very best start? Well, it’s easy — it all comes down to what’s in your toolbox. One of the most important tools growers could ever use is a seed treatment — according to Jason Mize, seed treatments give your seed the best start every single year.
“When you think about the most expensive pass through the field for a grower in the U.S., is when they plant,” says Mize, U.S. seed treatment lead for Nufarm. “No one would ever go out there and plan to build a house without pouring the proper foundation. Seed treatments are so important, and there’s sound science behind it as well.”
But the question remains: how do seed treatments give crops the best possible start? It’s easy, Mize says. They start by fending off early soil- and seed-borne pests, as well as insects. The key is getting that protection in as early as possible. When your seed’s protected, your future crop is protected — that gives you better ROI throughout the whole season.
One crop Nufarm’s team has taken a particular look at are soybeans, due to issues popping up across the U.S. such as soybean cyst nematode and sudden death syndrome (SDS). If you fail to catch either of these issues early, there’s going to be trouble for the year.
“The industry is hungry for other forms of controlling SDS,” Mize says. “We’re looking at different forms of controlling that fusarium in the soil for season-long control against SDS with products like Trunemco.”
And for pests like SDS, catching the disease early with a treatment can help prevent and protect soybean crops all season long.
Make sure to listen to Mize’s entire Giant Views interview above, and listen to more Giant Views as we continue through the Independent Professional Seed Association conference.
