If you haven’t been using soybean seed treatment, please consider the following.
The number one thing I hear from farmers who tell me they aren’t using seed treatment is, “I’ve tried it before, and I didn’t get much out of it.”
Most seed treatments in the past had a couple of fungicides and maybe an inoculant. It’s also possible you may have had an insecticide in there, but most products in the past have not had that.
Today, Hefty Complete Soybean Seed Treatment gives you 75 components! Whatever you’ve used in the past, if it hasn’t come from us, the most you’ve probably gotten has been five components. When you go to 75 like you find in Hefty Complete, you will likely see much better results.
Here are the three things I would ask you to look for if you compare our seed treatment vs. an untreated acre planted the same day side-by-side.
1. FASTER EMERGENCE.
If you can be out there the day the treated beans pop out of the ground, you will almost certainly see the treated seed emerging hours – if not days – sooner than the untreated beans.
2. MORE CONSISTENT STANDS.
Within a few days after emergence, please do stand counts. Most of the time, we find thicker stands where Hefty Complete has been used.
3. CHECK YIELD VERY CLOSELY.
The cost of Hefty Complete is about one bushel of soybeans. Do one-bushel yield differences show up on your yield monitor? How about four bushels? Of course not. It usually takes 8-, 10-, or 12-bushel yield differences to even register on your yield monitor. Our request, if you aren’t a believer in seed treatments, is to weigh each pass, because we are extremely confident that on average, you’ll get more than one bushel of soybeans back each fall.
Here’s what does come standard with Hefty Complete Soybean Seed Treatment:
⊲ ROOTastic inoculant. With the highest rhizobia count in the industry, you can expect more nitrogen production and uptake. Plus, we include an extender for long-lasting viability on the seed.
⊲ Four systemic fungicides. By bumping up the fungicide count and diversity, you’ll control more diseases later in the season. We commonly see tough diseases like pythium, rhizoctonia, and phytophthora suppressed for a couple of months!
⊲ Systemic insecticide. To make this an even bigger selling point for you, Hefty Complete comes with the only insect guarantee we know of in the industry. You can get up to two free resprays for soybean aphids, bean leaf beetles, grasshoppers, and cutworms if they show up at an economic threshold throughout most of the season. Talk to one of our agronomists about the details of the respray program.
⊲ Nutri-Cycle provides 26 active, beneficial microbial strains that begin working in the soil right away to make the most vital nutrients readily available for the young soybean. This leads to faster emergence, increased cold, salt, and drought tolerance, more developed root systems, and improved nutrient uptake.
⊲ Heat Shield. This is perhaps the most exciting differentiator of Hefty Complete Soybean Seed Treatment. Heat Shield is comprised of six beneficial fungal strains designed to symbiotically live within the plant as it grows and develops. We have found these fungi to increase tolerance to cold and salty soils, drought, and heat, along with general plant health enhancements. In normal conditions, Heat Shield has demonstrated a 2-6% yield advantage in many of our trials, but in fields under severe stress, we have seen huge gains.
⊲ Boost 10. This component has more than 30 amino acids that help increase chlorophyll concentration. That leads to a greater amount of photosynthesis. Amino acids are also key to protein formation in plants. Boost 10 will help speed plant metabolism and nutrient translocation, meaning your crop should have more of the right nutrients in the right places so you can achieve higher yields.
⊲ Flowability. I often tell seed companies and seed treatment providers I couldn’t care less about how well their product works if it doesn’t flow out of the seed tender and the planter. We have tested thousands of combinations to find the very best seed treatment mix for both efficacy and seed flowability, as well as reduced dust-off.
⊲ We also offer free Hefty Complete for replants when Hefty Complete was used on the first planting. Please talk to our agronomists about our seed replant policy when using Hefty Complete, as well.
⊲ Finally, and perhaps most importantly, our price point is very similar to competitive products that only contain 4 or 5 components, despite the fact we have 75 components, free resprays, a free seed treatment for replants, and far superior yields to other seed treatments. Even our agronomists have asked me why we have priced Hefty Complete at this level because I’ve had many of our people tell me, “We can sell this product for several dollars per acre more, based on our emergence, stands, and yield results.” Here is my response to that. Unlike other seed companies, we aren’t trying to get rich selling seed treatments. We are trying to provide you with a great value on the seed treatment so you use it on every acre. Then, when our beans outyield the competitors’ (which usually happens), you will be more likely to buy beans from us again in the future.
I realize this article probably seems like a sales pitch to you, but our goal is always to bring you products at a good price that deliver a great value and an excellent chance for a positive return on investment. If you aren’t currently using our seed treatment or our beans, I would challenge you to put five of our varieties with Hefty Complete vs. five competitive varieties with the competitor’s standard seed treatment. I would be shocked if our average yield isn’t at least a bushel or two more than the competitor’s. Since our pricing is likely the same or less, that means more money in your pocket.