Spring is officially here, at least by the calendar, and Midwest farmers are preparing for a new year with the 2012 drought in the rearview mirror and a new BASF Crop Protection fungicide that combines two powerful active ingredients into the most advanced chemistry ever developed for a range of products, including soybeans.

During the 2013 Commodity Classic, BASF was able to show farmers how Priaxor™ fungicide worked last year to control disease, improve Plant Health and drive yield, despite the record drought conditions.

Technical Market Manager for Plant Health Dr. Gary Fellows explained that they performed nearly 60 on-farm trials last year comparing Priaxor to BASF’s premier fungicide Headline. “Over those locations, Priaxor outyielded Headline by two bushels to the acre,” he said. “Not only that, it was much more consistent in its level of response.”

Priaxor is powered by Xemium® fungicide, a new active ingredient that continuously distributes its chemistry throughout the leaf to deliver more consistent disease protection, combined with F500®, the same active ingredient in Headline®. “The addition of Xemium to Headline does increase the disease control and the spectrum is better with Priaxor,” said Fellows. “On the growth efficiency side, we can show that Priaxor actually has a better plant health effect than Headline by itself.” Perhaps most importantly, Priaxor has shown to outperform Headline in stress situations, like drought.

Listen to my interview with Gary here: Interview with Dr. Gary Fellows

You can find out even more about Priaxor in lots of previous posts, including several from Classic – from Jennifer Holland – from Caren Schmidt – from Brianne Reeves – and from some growers.

Check out more photos from BASF at Commodity Classic here