Hopefully, I can help provide some clarity for you, at least when it comes to your options in the Naturals market.

Naturals have continually been at the forefront of management discussions, with our lineup seeing a record year of acres applied with MegaGro, Nutex EDA, and our planter box treatment products.

The reason acres continue to grow is due to these products providing consistent performance and return on investment. As the decision-making process for 2025 begins, we want to make sure you don’t cut out any products that consistently deliver a return on investment and replace them with something less effective or remove them entirely from your cropping plan.

IT’S GETTING NOISY OUT THERE. Over the past two months, how many stories or advertisements have you seen claiming you can use biostimulant products to replace at least some fertility? Just in 2024 alone, we have seen no fewer than 20 companies come in pushing products (with limited data) claiming that you can run their product with reduced fertility and get equal or higher yields.

Do we truly believe that? Or is it just convenient enough to get us to bite because we’re in cost-cutting mode due to the market outlook?

When every dollar counts, using products with an extensive track record of positive ROI will be the most important decision you can make in 2025, because cutting things like fertility or even seed never pans out the way we hope and expect it to.

Since it’s your money on the line, you must be comfortable with the products you buy, and it’s likely that many of these other products have only been in the marketplace for a few years.

On the other hand, MegaGro – one of our top selling products – has been on the market since 2005. Hefty Seed Company alone has data spanning 11 years, and we are continuing to gather more in 2024. Through this data, we are constantly reinforcing why MegaGro is one of our top-performing products. Even when corn prices fall into the $3 range and soybeans fall into the $8 range, adding MegaGro to the tank still brings a 3:1 ROI. Look at the chart on the next page using 2023 average yield increases, and you’ll see that you don’t need a lot of bushels gained to make good ROI.

For wheat growers looking to plant winter wheat in the next 60 days, another product that is a standout in our lineup is Cereal NS+. This product has the same components as the Nutri-Cycle and Heat Shield products found in Hefty Complete on Corn and Soybeans, but blended with talc so you can add it right into the drill when planting wheat. By adding this biology to the seed, you help with faster emergence and better standability, two critical factors needed when getting a wheat crop off to a good start before winter. The more available nutrients a young wheat plant can bring in, the more potential it has to survive a cold, harsh winter and rebound in the spring when temps warm up. One 20-pound container covers 240 acres of seed when you apply Cereal NS+ right to the air drill. In addition to winter wheat, Cereal NS+ works well for other crops, including spring wheat, canola, oats, and other small grains.