BASF’s The Science Behind Soybeans seminar at the 2010 Commodity Classic on Wednesday was focused on how the BASF Crop Protection portfolio for soybeans can help growers achieve higher yields, and how BASF is always looking to the future and what growers will want tomorrow.
“The soybean market has great potential for growth but yields haven’t increased that much in the last few years so what we really see is an opportunity is to get more from every acre by using some different practices and new technologies such as the new Kixor herbicide technology that BASF has,” said Paul Rea, Director of BASF US Crop Protection Division.
BASF Technical Service Manager Rick Chamblee says Kixor, which is the active ingredient in a number of new products that were just approved for use in this country last fall, is a great example of how BASF looked ahead to anticipate grower needs in the future. “When we started working on the Kixor family of products 9-10 years ago, glyphosate tolerant weeds were not even on the horizon,” Rick said. In fact, only one weed was resistant in the United States, today there are six broadleaf weeds that are tolerant to glyphosate that are commonly found in soybean production.
Not content to rest on their laurels, BASF has NINE active ingredients in the pipeline for the next FOUR years, expecting to introduce 28 new products. Compare that to 29 new products in the last nine years! Find out more in my back to back interviews with Paul and Rick in the player below.
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The average soybean yield in Illinois has been 45-46 bushels per acre the last two years, which Vince says has been pretty consistent for the past five years and growers would really like to see that improve by at least two bushels per acre. They would really like to see yields as high as the 100 bushels per acre that Kip Cullers sees on his farm, so Vince took a closer look at what Kip does last year to bring back to Illinois. “There’s a lot we have left to learn on how to maximize each individual plants’ productivity in soybean and really approach some of the levels of individual plant management like we’ve been doing in corn,” said Vince. He stresses the importance of early weed control as something growers can do to help improve yields. “Controlling weeds, starting with a clean field and making sure you don’t lose bushels to weeds early in the season is very important,” Vince said. 
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You can never get enough of the always entertaining World Soybean Yield Champion Kip Cullers.
David Roehm and his lovely wife Sue of Leesburg, Ohio are the grand prize winners of the 
Here at Commodity Classic a group of us media types are learning about The Science Behind Soybeans from 
One of the friendly faces you’ll meet when you check in to the media room at Commodity Classic is Cassandra Schlef, Communications Coordinator for 
Joining the ranks of the Farm Podcasters is Cathryn Wojcicki Dixson, 
