Renewable Farming

A mother lode of yield-building field research swims into our ken

In the next few weeks, we’ll begin extracting highlights of a massive database called “Practical Farm Research” generated by Beck’s Hybrids. This huge annual research project started in 2016. The 2020 report is almost 300 pages of tightly summarized data on field results from tests with roughly 200 products and techniques.

Beck’s PFR book cover

December 11, 2020 — First, thanks to Hal Brown, Indiana farmer and 40-year-plus Beck’s dealer, for alerting us to the research project. It’s exactly the type of money-making field testing we’ve encouraged for years. We’ve been a research cooperator with Practical Farmers of Iowa. But the Beck’s effort is massive by comparison. Six Beck’s staff members manage hundreds of field trials in eight Midwest states. We intend to ask Research Director Jim Schwartz how we can include WakeUP in future trials.

Here’s the link to the 2020 report. If that doesn’t connect for you, copy and paste this URL into your browser: 

https://www.beckshybrids.com/portals/0/sitecontent/literature/2020-2021-literature/Becks-2020-PFRBook.pdf

This brief preview can only highlight a few of the hundreds of field trials. We’re especially interested in foliar and in-furrow nutrition and biological products, because our own trials and customer experience shows that WakeUP enhances performance of such products.

A convenient way to manage this huge document: Once you’ve found it online, download a PDF (portable document file) of the full report, which can be your “keeper.” You can open it in Adobe Acrobat, which is easily downloadable if your computer doesn’t have it already.

The PFR report contains a “Proven” section, listing products which have shown a profitable return for three consecutive years. Here are some samples of Proven results. Tables in the full report are far more descriptive; this table shows only yield gain and return on investment.

IN-FURROW NUTRITION AND INOCULANTS (starting on page 36)

In-furrow nutrients for corn:

Product Puregrade diamond Nachurs Impulse

P-Max LFS   poly Amino

Microcarb
ROI / acre $12.78 $17.67 $18.46 $11.44
Yield gain (bu./acre) 8.2  9.5  4.6  4.0

 

In-furrow nutrients for soybeans:

Product First Pass with Microcarb Graph-ex SA for soybeans

Vault SP

 
ROI / acre $9.19 $3.44 $18.46  
Yield gain (bu./acre) 2.7  0.8 1.4  

Refer to the full PFR report, pages 37 through 40, for full details on these in-furrow products. We’ve learned from farmer clients and our own field trials that 3 ounces per acre of WakeUP Spring blended into an in-furrow nutrient solution usually enhances yield response 50% to 80%. Example: We’d anticipate that 3 ounces of WakeUP Spring with Nachurs Impulse on corn would add about 4 more bushels to that 9.5 bushel gain. At our unprecedented year-end WakeUP price of $75 per gallon, adding that three ounces would cost $1.75 per acre to get about $40 in soybeans at $10 per bushel.