FMC is helping growers to realize that in-furrow treatments can offer important benefits.
“We build zones of protection around those seeds and those seedlings, and we’re using a multitude of active ingredients,” said Rick Ekins, Application and Innovations Platform Lead with FMC. “We’re really trying to get that plant off to a robust start. That’s the best thing you can do for that seed.”
Ekins said it is important to put those nutrients where they can help that plant the most, increasing efficiency and productivity. He said the in-furrow solutions offered by FMC are particularly important in situations where growers are facing cold planting conditions or a history of disease or insect pressure.
“There are diseases that are taken up by the plant almost immediately after seeding but you don’t see symptoms until way later in the season. But once the plant has already got them, there is nothing you can do about that. An in-furrow product that protects against that particular disease – when that seedling pops through the ground – that protection is already there,” said Ekins, who noted the cost of crop protection is relatively small compared to a grower’s investment in land, seed and nutrition.
Ekins was at the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky.
Listen to Chuck’s interview with Rick here: Interview with Rick Ekins, FMC