5/23/2022

What You Need to Know About Seed Treatments

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Treated seed

As a farmer, your bottom line relies on yield. You know this. You also know yield potential is at risk from multiple threats starting the moment you plant your corn or soybean seeds in the spring. That’s why it’s a good idea to get an understanding of what seed treatments are and how they can benefit your farm.

Considering Seed Treatments

So what exactly are seed treatments? They’re defined as any additional material — like a chemical, biological organism or nutrient — added to the seed to help improve crop performance.

“The soil is full of nematodes, insect pests and pathogens that would love to devour seed for their own purposes — seed treatments help ward them off,” says Matthew Montgomery, agronomist, Pioneer.

Montgomery says Pioneer offers LumiGEN® seed treatments with a wide variety of active ingredients to protect against those pests and pathogens.

“For both corn and beans — we have a biofungicide active ingredient component that augments hard chemistry. Our corn fungicide seed treatment is the most robust available in the industry providing enhanced protection against resistant Pythium species and a new active ingredient against Rhizoctonia (inpyrfluxam),” Montgomery explains. “Our standard soybean seed treatment has five different modes of action (including biofungicide) along with insecticide seed treatment.”

Montgomery says these seed treatments can help give your corn and/or soybean crops a head start to establish better stands and healthier root systems. This, in turn, helps the crops ward off other threats later in the growing season.

“The logistics of starting a planting season already present a significant hurdle for growers — if we can reduce logistical stress by increasing the staying power of a stand — that serves everyone better,” he says. “This kind of vigorous seed treatment mix is what allows growers to better seize planting opportunities during increasingly narrow planting windows. Minus that kind of cocktail, our risk of stand loss would run higher, and we would need to wait for even warmer soil conditions before planting started.”

Choosing the Right Seed Treatments

Seed treatments can certainly help you start the season off on the right foot. However, you need to choose the right treatments for your fields. Here are three considerations to keep in mind:

  1. Select products with high quality, fast-acting active ingredients that provide immediate protection for vulnerable seedlings.
  2. Choose a seed treatment package that is compatible with your seed genetics and optimal for your field environment.
  3. Look for products that offer multiple modes of action to manage a broad range of pest species and diseases.

The early growth stages help set the tone for the rest of the season. Protecting your corn and soybeans from insects and diseases right off the bat helps ensure better yield potential at harvest. To learn more about seed treatments, click here to find your local Pioneer team.

 

Components of LumiGEN® seed treatments are applied at a Corteva Agriscience production facility, or by an independent sales representative of Corteva Agriscience or its affiliates. Not all sales representatives offer treatment services, and costs and other charges may vary. See your sales representative for details. Seed applied technologies exclusive to Corteva Agriscience and its affiliates. 

 

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