ASK THE AGRONOMIST BLOG

Our Stine agronomy department is working with sales team members to install METOS^® weather stations in our Master Yield in the Field (MYIF) plots. We’re confident this effort will provide more actionable data to our grower customers.

As our MYIF plots are located throughout the United States, these weather stations will provide us with important agronomic data in different regions and growing environments.

“The weather stations track accurate rainfall, wind speed and growing degree days in real-time without relying on public data,” says Todd Schomburg, director of agronomy.

Each station is equipped with a solar panel, wind speed sensor, and automated rain gauge that sends valuable information directly to the FieldClimate cloud, giving immediate access to the data from any smart device.

“This technology is the next evolution in weather stations,” says Schomburg.

Specifically, METOS notes the stations are designed to monitor basic meteorological parameters, including rain and temperature, humidity, solar radiation, wind speed and soil characteristics such as moisture and soil temperature (if installed with a soil probe). They also have packages that offer applications that detect frost, leaf wetness, disease models, evapotranspiration, hydrology, etc. Data is measured in five-minute intervals and delivered to the FieldClimate cloud every 15 minutes.

“These elements will help determine when soil is ready for planting, conditions are ideal for disease proliferation, and so much more,” says Schomburg. “We’re excited about how these stations will help improve crop management throughout the planting and growing seasons and deliver better data for our customers.”

Another unique advantage to the METOS weather stations — they’re environmentally friendly. When sun is available, the unit can recharge its battery through the solar panel connected to the device.

“The units are cost-effective, environmentally sound and easy to use,” says Schomburg. “Some have been installed and we’re already receiving great data that will help us determine when to get the plots in the ground.”

More on our MYIF plots
Stine plants at least two MYIF plots per sales region each year. With 36 regions across the country, we’re planting nearly 70 plots this year in collaboration with our grower partners. MYIF plots have between six to 10 Stine corn products, including our newest hybrids along with experimental products to look at as future hybrids in the lineup. To ensure a level playing field, we also have up to two national competitor brands and, when available, a local competitive brand in the mix for comparison purposes.

“The main goal of our Master Yield in the Field plots is to derive as much data possible from our corn products and those of our competitors,” says Schomburg. “We monitor everything from emergence scores and stand counts to ear and tassel height, in addition to different biologicals and inputs used and planting populations and row configurations.”

These plots are valuable in producing the highest quality data for our growers and make a great training resource for our sales team.

“We also use our Master Yield in the Field plots for training,” adds Schomburg. “They allow our seed dealers and sales team members to study the products and understand how they perform in different environments. They’re extremely valuable to our operations all around.”

For more information on our MYIF plots and data generated from our weather station program, contact your local Stine sales rep or regional sales agronomist.

Stine^® continually seeks ways to improve yields and best management practices for growers in the field, and we’re excited to launch a unique emergence study this spring. This study aims to evaluate corn emergence to demonstrate how uniform emergence impacts ears and yield.

“Our goal is to continue to find ways to improve product evaluation and field placement,” says Tony Lenz, corn technical agronomist. “By using data from the emergence study, we’ll be able to home in on the ideal hybrids and best planting practices that improve overall performance of our seed. It’s part of our agronomy team’s core focus — to find the most effective ways for growers to achieve yields above growers' expectations.”

Protocols and data collection
Our Stine agronomists plan is to implement the emergence study in each of our 36 regions nationwide. This wide area approach allows us to examine how different products emerge in different environments. Our agronomy team’s intention with this study is to look at how our latest products perform — the hybrids that are either brand new to the marketplace or released in the last few years. And our sales team’s primary focus is to check emergence and performance through side-by-side comparisons with competitor products. This will allow us to showcase better how Stine genetics result in fast starts and even emergence.

For each study, our agronomists and sales reps in the field will measure 1/1,000 of an acre within two rows next to each other. Different colored flags will be used to mark the different stages (days) of emergence. This will take a great deal of due diligence as our team will monitor and identify soil breaks, plant spikes, stand counts, and plant height each day before and for four consecutive days after emergence has been noted. We need to be there four days in a row at the same time every day as even a delayed emergence of 24 hours can harm yield.

Emergence study plots will be monitored frequently throughout the growing season and will again be examined before and after harvest to determine ear development, as well as tassel, top leaf and ear heights.

“What differentiates this emergence study from others in the industry is that we’re taking our research and data to the next level by recording ear, grain and cob weight according to emergence and yield results,” says Lenz.  

The data we collect from this study will help determine specific hybrid performance by population, singulation and planting depth, as well as any inputs or treatments applied. We’ll also have side-by-side comparisons with competitor products to evaluate performance.

“We’re proud of the fast starts and excellent emergence that come with Stine genetics,” says Tom Larson, corn technical agronomist. “This study will provide us with additional data to showcase our products’ proven performance. In addition, it will allow growers to see how each hybrid works in different environments and how those environments impact emergence.”

Exploring the value of even emergence
In a recent article by Farm Journal’s Ag Web, agronomic experts highlight the value of uniform plant emergence and its effect on corn yields. The article featured some of the top precision agriculture experts to examine their findings on how accurate seed metering and placement can impact seed performance. The article notes that “While precise seed spacing produces pretty fields, timely emergence of seedlings is a big impact on yields.”

A specific study conducted by Jason Webster, a commercial agronomist with Precision Planting’s Precision Technology Institute, found when they altered a planter to plant at only 95% singulation and compared it to a planter that performed at 99% singulation, the latter did the best job at establishing ideal plant spacing and uniform emergence — a 16.6 bushel/acre difference.

 “With corn at $5, that was an $83 per acre difference,” says Webster. “That shows how sensitive corn yields can be to the potential that high-tech planters provide.”

Stine is also exploring this as part of our emergence study, particularly as we look at the new MX Series Corn by Stine line of hybrids and how precision planting can elicit even greater yields.

“MX Series Corn includes the best, most elite hybrids Stine offers,” says Larson. “This is why we’re using these products in our emergence study. We want to test the best genetics with the best planting strategies that incite the best yield results. That’s the corn we want in our bag.

For more information on our emergence study or MX Series Corn by Stine, contact your local Stine sales rep or regional sales agronomist.

In January, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) relabeling of Enlist One^® and Enlist Duo^® herbicides for the 2022 growing season was good news for most soybean growers. At that time, there were a small number of counties where the herbicides could not be relabeled until additional endangered species risk assessment data could be obtained.

On Tuesday, however, Corteva Agriscience announced that 128 of those counties initially restricted now have full access to the Enlist herbicides.

The EPA issued updated supplemental labels for the herbicides that remove geographic restrictions for two listed species, the American burying beetle and the eastern massasauga rattlesnake.

Notably, the Enlist herbicides were granted a seven-year amended registration and are the first products to complete the EPA's new Endangered Species Act protection risk assessment process.

Updated supplemental labels
The updated supplemental labels remove geographic restrictions for Enlist One and Enlist Duo herbicides in 128 counties where the American burying beetle is found, and six counties where Enlist Duo was restricted due to the eastern massasauga rattlesnake. 

Counties that have now been reinstated include:

• Arkansas: Crawford, Franklin, Johnson, Little River, Logan, Montgomery, Polk, Scott, Sebastian, Sevier and Yell.
• Kansas: Chautauqua, Cherokee, Cowley, Elk, Greenwood, Labette, Montgomery, Neosho, Wilson and Woodson.
• Minnesota: Clay, Marshall, Polk, Redwood, Renville and Stearns.
• Missouri: Barton, Bates, Cedar, St. Clair and Vernon.
• Nebraska: Antelope, Blaine, Boone, Boyd, Brown, Cherry, Custer, Dawson, Frontier, Furnas, Garfield, Gosper, Greeley, Hayes, Holt, Hooker, Howard, Keya Paha, Knox, Lincoln, Logan, Loup, McPherson, Merrick, Nance, Phelps, Red Willow, Rock, Sherman, Thomas, Valley and Wheeler.
• Ohio: Athens, Butler, Fairfield, Guernsey, Hamilton, Hocking, Morgan, Muskingum, Noble, Perry, Vinton and Washington.
• Oklahoma: Adair, Atoka, Bryan, Carter, Cherokee, Choctaw, Cleveland, Coal, Craig, Creek, Delaware, Garvin, Haskell, Hughes, Johnston, Kay, Latimer, Le Flore, Lincoln, Love, Marshall, Mayes, McClain, McCurtain, McIntosh, Murray, Muskogee, Noble, Nowata, Okfuskee, Okmulgee, Osage, Ottawa, Pawnee, Payne, Pittsburg, Pontotoc, Pottawatomie, Pushmataha, Rogers, Seminole, Sequoyah, Tulsa, Wagoner and Washington.
• South Dakota: Bennett, Charles Mix, Gregory, Lyman, Mellette, Todd and Tripp.
• Texas: Bowie, Cooke, Fannin, Grayson, Lamar and Red River.

Updated usage area maps and supplemental labels will be available on Enlist.com/SupplementalLabels. Additional information can be found on EPA’s website at https://www.epa.gov/pesticides/epa-expands-use-enlist-products-134-additional-counties-2022-growing-season.