You better believe that Missouri farmer Kip Cullers knows how to grow soybeans. As a matter of fact, he’s the best in the world, as Cindy already told you. Another product that helped Kip reach another record soybean yield is Stoller’s Bio-Forge.
“Ninety-five percent of all the plant nutrients are in the top 4” of the soil. You’ve got to have a good root system,” explained Cullers during the award ceremony. “The thing that helped us the most was by adding the Bio-Forge to our seed treatment. We picked up 5 to 7 bushels with that alone.”
In addition to using Bio-Forge, Cullers also applied Stoller’s FRAME and Keylate Manganese to help control the white mold. Unfortunately for Culler, the conditions of his contest field are ripe for white mold due to heavy irrigation techniques used to cool the plants in the extreme hot temperatures. FRAME and Keylate Manganese also work to protect flower set, improve pod set and increase photosynthesis.
And last but not least, Stoller’s Sugar Mover was used to move sugars and nutrients from the leaves to the grain to enhance pod fill, and then Cullers used a new experimental Stoller product to increase branching expression and increase pod set and fill.
Cullers’ contest plot was planted on April 13, 2010, and soon after the plant emerged he was surprised to find branching and root nodulation at the unusually early unifoliate stage. Cullers had no doubt the seed treatment had gotten his contest plot off to an early and impressive start. Vigorous early root growth, branching and early nodulation were quickly apparent. Other physical highlights included the large and uniform pods that were located up and down the multiple branches and an extended period of nodulation Root systems became so prolific they were difficult to dig up. Since the stalks were unusually large and robust, they easily supporting the pod-laden plants.
“We’re already planning what we’re going to do differently next year,” shared Cullers, “We are definitely going to be using Stoller products because they helped us.”
You can send Kip your congrats by posting a message on BASF’s Facebook page.