Plant health protein adds to margins
CHARLESTON, Missouri – Donnie DeLine tests and adopts new technologies that will help him work up his crop’s yields, enhancing the margins.
The past three years DeLine has gained significant yield increases in his corn and his cotton with the use of the new Harpin protein in ProAct™ Plant Health Regulator. 2006 was his first year using Roundup Ready® Flex cotton varieties, which provided a wider window to apply the ProAct with glyphosate on his cotton. Deline is using that combination again in 2007 on all his cotton. The ProAct also goes out with the glyphosate on about 3,500 acres of his Roundup Ready corn hybrids.
“In 2006, the yield monitors on our combines showed us an 8 to 10 bushel yield increase on the 500 acres of corn where we used ProAct,” says DeLine, who is the fourth generation to work the family’s DeLine Farms comprised of several thousand acres of corn, cotton, wheat, and soybeans. “In 2005, we had our first test of ProAct, and we saw a 15-bushel increase when we split an 80-acre pivot, half treated with ProAct and half untreated. It was such a good return on investment we decided to sharply expand the ProAct acres in 2006 and again in 2007.”
The 8-10 bushel corn increases DeLine saw in 2006 are consistent with the 7-bushel averages for commercial and research field trials in other states and cropping systems over a four-year period. The Roundup Ready Yieldgard hybrids he used were Crows 8S214 and Golden Harvest.
DeLine is a member of the National Corn Growers Association and participated in the ProAct Partnership in 2005 and 2006, a joint program by NCGA and Eden Bioscience, which in 2007 sold its Harpin protein (Harp-N-Tek™) field crop products to Plant Health Care, Inc. (PHC). The objective of the NCGA trials has been to learn more about how ProAct performs in different corn production systems, with different hybrids and soils.
“I like to look at new technologies and crop management systems, so the NCGA project was a good opportunity to learn more about the Harpin plant health regulator,” says DeLine. In deciding which new technologies to try, DeLine relies a lot on the expertise of the older DeLine generation. ProAct and other inputs for the farm come mostly from DeLine Seed & Chemical, Charleston, owned by his uncle, Smith DeLine, a Helena Chemical agent. And Donnie’s father, Bill DeLine, manages the large Home Oil Co. co-operative in Osceola, Mississippi.
Harpin development continues
PHC is continuing the development and marketing of ProAct and another Harpin-based product, N-Hibit™ Seed Treatment. N-Hibit reduces the number of nematode eggs among plant roots by an average 50% or more in replicated trials in Southern and Midwestern states. The results have been consistent and favorable against Reniform and Root Knot nematodes in cotton. Findings to date against Soybean Cyst Nematode, the major nematode of soybeans, have paralleled the results in cotton. Many producers have included N-Hibit as part of their nematode management program.
The N-Hibit impact on SCN and the average yield increases of over 3 bushels per acre from N-Hibit-treated soybeans encouraged the American Soybean Association and PHC to implement the N-Hibit Partnership Program this year. Participating ASA members will be evaluating the seed treatment on their own soybeans and in their own cropping systems. DeLine is an ASA member and is participating in the N-Hibit Partnership.
DeLine says much of the acreage he farms has severe nematode problems, and in 2007 he is trying N-Hibit on some of his corn in lighter soils that the nematodes seem to like, and also on 300 to 400 of his 5,000 acres of soybeans, and a few hundred acres of cotton.
“In the cotton, it’s great to have the Flex varieties so that you’re not up against a wall for timing the application of the glyphosate and ProAct. The Flex convenience is really important, especially when you have several hundred acres to cover and limited hired help and equipment to do it. Flex really helped us out last year, and we found that the ProAct gave us an additional 100 pounds per acre on average.” The varieties used were Stoneville 4554 B2RF and some Delta Pine 113 B2RF.
DeLine says ProAct is a good fit with Flex because ProAct can be applied on cotton any time between 2-leaf and first bloom. Producers also can use ProAct along with early applications of mepiquat chloride.
ProAct, N-Hibit, and Harp-N-Tek are trademarks of Plant Health Care, Inc. Roundup Ready and YieldGard are registered trademark of Monsanto Technology LLC.