March 11, 2025 • 34 mins
Protecting soybean yields through effective seed treatments is our main focus as we discuss critical strategies for maximizing profits. Seed treatments are a pivotal part of achieving healthier plants and higher yields.
- Exploring the evolution of seed treatment practices
- Importance of understanding early season threats
- Navigating different seed treatment options and brands
- The role of local agronomists in choosing seed treatments
- Insights into pest management at early growth stages
- Strategies for sustainable farming practices using seed treatments
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Disclaimer:
Liberty, Outlook , Zidua, Zidua PRO , Poncho Votivo Precise, Endura , Revytek, Fastac CS, ILEVO , Vault IP Plus , Relenya , Priaxor , Liberty ULTRA , are registered trademarks of BASF. Nemasphere, Zorina and Voraxor are trademarks of BASF. Enlist, Enlist One, Enlist Duo, and Enlist E3 are registered trademarks of Corteva Agriscience LLC. The transgenic event in Enlist E3 soybeans is jointly developed and owned by Corteva Agriscience LLC and M.S. Technologies, L.L.C.
Xitavo is a registered trademark of MS Technologies and exclusively distributed by BASF. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners and use of any such trademark does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by its owner.
Always read and follow label directions. Before mixing components, always conduct a compatibility jar test. Always consult respective product labels for specific mixing instructions. The most restrictive label applies. Fastac CS is a restricted use pesticide. Nemasphere, Zorina, and Voraxor are not registered and not available for sale. This information is provided for educational purposes only and is not intended to promote the sale of this product. Any sale of this product after registration is obtained shall be based solely on the EPA approved product label, and any claims regarding product safety and efficacy shall be addressed solely by the label. The views expressed by BASF employees and Guest are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of BASF. Grow Smart is a registered trademark of BASF. Copyright 2025 BASF Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Spilling the Beans, the podcast that
spills the secrets to unlockingyour soybean farm's full
potential.
Every Tuesday, your hosts, billBackus and Jeff Mueller, dive
into expert strategies andinnovative solutions that will
help you boost your yields andmaximize your returns.
Whether you're a seasonedgrower or new to soybean farming
, we're here to help you succeed.
Let's get started.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hello and welcome to another episode of Spilling the
Beans.
I'm Jeff Mueller.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
And I'm Bill Backus.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
And thanks again for joining us today as we dive into
the world of soybeans, coveringvarious topics and providing
insights to the soybean industry.
Bill.
How are we doing today?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Doing well.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
You know we're into March here and March here and
we've basically just beenfinishing up here at Commodity
Classic, so really lookingforward to getting planting
going here in a month.
It's been really good and everyyear it's always interesting
just how many good questions,how many good conversations that
you end up having, and we'vehad quite a few on, you know,
soybeans.
This year, you know marketprice is down a little bit, so
(01:11):
it's all about producing as manybushels as we can.
So we've had a lot of goodconversations, a lot of stories,
so it's been really interestingPart of that.
When we're talking about growinghigh-yield soybeans or getting
a good return on investment,soybeans is one of the
safeguards that we can use out.
There is seed treatments, andseed treatments is something
that's come very prevalent inthe last few years.
(01:32):
You know, if you think about it, Bill, you know when you got
started in this industry.
Let me ask this question howmany beans were treated?
Or maybe the better way to sayit is did you even anybody even
talk about treating soybeans?
Maybe that's the question tohave.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yeah, no, great question, jeff, and really
looking forward to this episode.
Your early seed treatments youknow I spent a lot of time, you
know, past, you know I don'tknow how many decades thinking
about soybeans.
But yeah, like you say, when wefirst started both of us back
in the day, you know bin-runbeans, a lot of stuff just
pulling right out of the bin,you know definitely didn't get a
seed treatment on.
Then you kind of got a littlebit of people talking about some
(02:16):
single modes of action, youknow, with some on-farm type
treaters and different thingslike that.
So you know, I rememberbasically on the you know family
farm, I mean shoot, it washardly anything ever was treated
, it was always going outuntreated.
You know, and you did that aswe've talked previously on.
You know, on our seeding ratestuff, you know that what I call
controlled spillage was reallywhat, what the planting was
right and we really didn't haveyou know much stuff going on
(02:37):
there.
So how about you?
Anything else you got from yourside?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yeah, yeah, and you know same thing.
You know you didn't even thinkabout it.
Then when you don't hear about20 years ago, they start talking
about it.
It's like what are you talkingabout?
Putting seed treatment onsoybeans?
You know it's soybeans, right,we grab them out of the bin.
But things changed the lastcouple of days a lot and it's
brought a lot of things to thetable and you think about that's
really kind of interestingbecause historically soybeans
have been widely planted withoutseed treatments.
We still have some of it goingon now but there's a lot of it
(03:03):
going on.
But as we continue to strivefor higher yields, we understand
and we continue to findsoybeans are very susceptible to
a lot of diseases out there.
So we've understood, or we'recoming into understanding, the
value of seed treatments outthere and protecting that seed
early and getting a nice plantto come up early, Some of the
value it brings on helping tomaximize some of that yield, not
(03:25):
only from early season diseasesbut also from insects, early
season insects that we have outthere and really, if you think
about it a lot of times it'salways thought about corn and
then the soybeans orhappenstance when we go through
there.
So that's really beeninteresting about seed
treatments.
Bill, you've always got a storytime for us and I know, again,
it's something that you'rereally passionate about.
(03:46):
But you know, tell us a littlebit about something that you've
experienced with your seedtreatments and soybeans and
where we've gone from where wewere at to where we're going.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Yeah, yeah, no great, great to like to tell little
stories here.
So you know, a couple, coupleI'm going to kind of weave in a
couple on this one here todayduring this episode.
So really, really, you know,right when we were like we
started off a little bit thereon you know family farm, not
doing a lot there, and then youkind of get into doing some and
then you, you know, youobviously start working in the
seed industry and you startlearning more about what's going
(04:16):
on.
You really want to know why,right.
So so you know, some of mymaster's work actually was on
seed treatments and really duginto you know what's going on
and finding out that it really ahealthier plant from the
beginning.
Uh really ends up being, youknow, higher yields and
basically have more pods, youhave more seeds per pod,
basically all kind of tiestogether just for for a
healthier plant all the waythrough.
(04:36):
So a lot of the trial work thatyou and I've done and you know,
working with, uh, one of ourguests that we have here, or a
guest that we have here today onhis team, we do a lot of trials
across our entire geography,right.
So looking at a lot ofdifferent things, from diseases
to stand counts to soybean cyst,nematode to, you know, all the
way, plant health, sudden deatha lot of different things that
(04:58):
we're going to talk about herewith our guests.
So a lot of trial work thatwe've done and we continue to do
that and continue to learn.
You know, across the board andacross the entire areas that we
cover that how important seedtreatments are, especially in
soybeans, as we're focused onsoybeans.
You know we definitely talkabout corn a lot too, but very
critical for a corn plant tocome up healthy.
But you know, even more so as wethink through soybeans, we're
(05:21):
seeing more and more go outtreated and you know, rightfully
so, as we're striving for highyields.
So you know, I think with thatI'll go ahead and introduce our
guest here today.
Nick Tinsley is a seedtreatment technical field rep
with BISF covering the EasternCorn Belt.
He is responsible for researchand development activities and
customer support related to BISFseed treatment portfolio.
Nick received his BS, ms andPhD from the University of
(05:44):
Illinois and has 17 years ofexperience in agriculture.
So I think there was abasketball game or something
wasn't there, jeff, thathappened here recently with
Illinois.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Yeah, yeah, Three weeks ago, and I think it was
Nebraska and Illinois, andNebraska was on a six-game
losing streak and Illinois wasranked 18 at the time.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Hey, I didn't think this was my first podcast.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Hey, even a broken clock's right twice a day, nick,
so it just happened to be ournight.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Here we go, here we go.
Welcome, nick.
So again, glad to have you here.
So I guess, if anything elseyou want to introduce about
yourself.
But you know, and then I guessI'll tie into the first question
, so you know you're passionateabout seed treatments, Nick.
So why, why?
So?
Why are you so passionate aboutseed treatments?
Speaker 4 (06:29):
Yeah, yeah, I really am, and I've been working with
seed treatments for the betterpart of 17 years, ever since I
started.
I remember the first one of thefirst trials I had were these
soybeans.
Soybeans and soybean aphidswere really bad in Illinois at
the time and they were theseblue beans and I thought, well,
(06:50):
how is this going to have anyimpact whatsoever on a pest that
comes in in a few months?
And sure enough it did, andthat was the root of my master's
work was on seed treatment.
So I've been involved withthese for a very long time and I
would say my passion is aroundjust the vulnerability of the
crop at the time where we'retrying to get some protection
out of seed treatment.
(07:10):
So you think about a soybeanplant as it emerges that VE V1
timeframe.
That's one of the most criticaltimeframes in terms of that
crop being able to withstandsome injury from diseases,
insects and other things.
So that's a big part of it andI think beyond that.
You know, I was a lineman when Iplayed high school football and
(07:31):
people don't really think aboutseed treatments, right.
So I'm used to this unsung herorole and so much of the crop,
right.
We talk about fungicidespraying in season.
We talk about managing weedswith post sprays and even
harvest.
A lot of this stuff with seedtreatment goes on before that
crop's even planted, and so Ikind of like operating in that
(07:51):
element.
There's a sustainability elementto seed treatments, right?
So just the nature of how muchproduct we're using.
Right, it's used very precisely, we're not using very much of
it, and so there's a lot ofadvantages to using a seed
treatment over something like aspray, which obviously are still
a part of the overall program.
But I do like that about seedtreatment.
(08:12):
And finally, last thing is, Igrew up in rural central
Illinois, so I like working withfolks in that community all
over the country really to helpgive them a lot more flexibility
.
So if you think about what seedtreatments have done, it's
allowed for earlier planting,it's allowed for maybe
modification or reducing seedingrates to be a little bit more
(08:33):
optimal.
These are things that 20, 25years ago people weren't able to
do.
And you mentioned this Billabout controlled spill.
I mean, things are so precisenow.
I think all those reasonsreally tie into why this is such
a passion for me and really thereason to get up and go to work
.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
So yeah, no, those are.
Those are great points, nick.
You know, if you think about ittoo, we always talk about
breaking that next level or nextnext barrier of yield potential
out there, and really seedtreatments has been a big part
of that breaking some of thatbarriers out there for some of
those individuals as we're goingthrough there.
If you're thinking about it,though, you know everybody's got
(09:10):
a seed treatment now, right,everybody's offering things.
We got, you know, so-and-so'soffering it or so-and-so's
offering it.
Where we're at, there's so muchon the market and our listeners
hear all this informationcoming from everybody out there.
You know, what would yourecommend to our listeners to do
, to how to sort through thissea of seed treatments?
I mean, what, basically?
What do, what are some of thebasics they need to have from
(09:32):
going on that and then like withsome add-ons of that?
So can you kind of help ourlisteners sort through that sea
of seed treatments a little bit?
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Yeah, it can be extremely difficult in seed
treatment, more so than otherelements of producing a crop.
I'll admit that right away, anda lot of that relates back to
you know.
All this stuff is done ahead oftime, so you know when you're
looking for advice on what touse as a seed treatment, I think
one of the best sources ofadvice you can get from is your
(10:01):
local seed agronomist, right?
So seed treatments by theirvery nature are really tied in
with seed, and these seedcompanies that produce these
seeds are really in tune withthis, and so visiting with seed
agronomists is really great.
You know a lot of, especiallywith soybean.
A lot of that treating goes onat that retail level.
So your local retailer is goingto have a lot of great
(10:22):
information on that.
But you're right, there's a lotout there.
So I think typically what Iwould recommend is you want to
look for brands from a reputablecompany?
Okay, and that's not to saythat there are bad actors out
there, but you want a companythat you know, that you can
recognize, that you're familiarwith, and you also want that
company to be one of these thatis heavily involved in the R&D
(10:45):
process or the research anddevelopment process.
So every year at BASF, you know, we put out thousands of trials
, spend a tremendous amount ofmoney on developing the next
product, the more safe product,the more effective product, and
the more you can use seedtreatments that are from
companies like that, the betteroff you're going to be, because
(11:06):
you're going to know those arerigorously tested and they don't
come to market if they don'twork right.
And we'll talk about this, Ithink, a little later.
But one of the areas to be alittle leery of is the
biological space because that isparticularly clouded with a
regulatory environment that maynot be as rigorous as some of
the chemistry standards, and soI'm sure we'll get into
(11:29):
biologics here sooner or later.
But just be leery of thepromises of biologics.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
you know, bugging a jug from Doug or something like
that biologics you know, bug ina jug from Doug or something
like that, right?
So exactly, yeah, bug in a jugfrom Doug that's making it his
bathtub at home, right, that'sright, that boils down to you.
So, Nick let's you know for ourlisteners here.
Let's get a little morespecific.
You know, use your yourfootball a little bit there and
let's tackle right.
(11:55):
Let's tackle some, some otherseedling diseasesling diseases
like pythium, you know, fusarium.
Let's look at rhizoctonium,maybe phomopsis.
You know, what do we have atBASF here that we can use to
inform our listeners about someof the products that we have,
and you know why they're maybe alittle bit different.
Whatever else you want to shareabout, you know the products we
have at BASF.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Yeah, that's great, and this is where the passion
comes in.
So you just mentioned a coupleof seedling diseases and
typically when a grower maybehas an issue with some stand in
the spring, it's well, I've gotdamping off or I've got seed rot
, okay, and that's where itstops.
And the reality is each ofthese diseases have their own
(12:36):
unique situations where they aremore problematic or not.
So, for example, rhizoctoniatends to be a little worse when
it's warm out, whereas thingslike Pythium or Fusarium might
be worse when it's cold out, andso knowing that your seed
treatment is protecting againsteach of these diseases is very
important.
At BASF, we have a greatfungicide package called Obvious
(12:56):
Plus Fungicide Seed Treatment.
Now the nice thing about thisis it has four different active
ingredients.
Now, some of these will targetthings like Pythium and
Phytophthora and others willtarget things like Pemopsis,
rhizoctonia and Fusarium.
But the really nice thing abouthaving four active ingredients
in that is that you get thisoverlapping protection.
So there's never a situationwhere you've just got one
(13:18):
disease being covered by oneactive ingredient.
So if you think about you know,anytime you want to provide
protection to something, youwant to make sure you have a
backup in place right and that'skind of.
That's kind of how that worksand really, beyond that, the
newest fungicidal activeingredient I mentioned that R&D
process, the newest fungicidalAI in BSS portfolio is this
(13:40):
Revisol molecule.
Now, this is a new fungicide.
You may be familiar with itwith foliar products like
Revitec or Veltema.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
And we leverage that as a seed treatment for
something called Relaenia.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Now, relaenia is really nice because it's an
additional add-on, but youessentially provide extra
protection against Fus andrhizoctonia and I would argue, I
think that these seedling rots,these are root rotting type
pathogens.
You think about fusarium.
It may not always cause standloss, but I guarantee it's on
most acres in the Midwest and soyou really don't understand
(14:15):
what you might be missing untilyou add in something like a
premium relaneate and revealsome extra yield at the end of
the year.
So that's kind of a rundown ofthe BSF fungicide offerings and
really a strong level ofprotection across the board
there.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Yeah, I know that's yeah, and you know you said go
ahead, bill.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
I got a follow-up question, sorry.
So as you think through youknow I want to ask about SDS
here.
Go ahead, bill.
Operators.
They tell us that that one hasthe most vigorous you know
growth of anyone out there.
So I'm curious why?
(15:02):
Why do you see something likethat happen, you know, when it's
just you know we say it'sprotected against some seedling
diseases, but what else is goingon within that?
Do you think just a hype of youknow?
Curious if you have anyobservation or seen anything
like that.
I've seen it as well.
It just looks like the newmagic sauce that just kind of
making that thing just grow andfly out of the ground like crazy
.
So curious what your thoughtsare on that relating.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
No, that's a great question, bill, you know.
We do know that there are someseed treatments that will
provide some plant health andplant vigor type of effects.
The neonicotinoid seedtreatments are known to do this
right, and we get a little bitof that out of the F500 molecule
and Obvious Plus, but I thinkwith Relenia.
(15:46):
I think what it boils down tois that fusarium is everywhere
and it doesn't always causestand loss, and so if you're in
a situation where you plantedand you get any moisture
whatsoever, that plant will beinfected with some species of
fusarium Um and, and that is aroot rotting pathogen, um, a lot
(16:06):
of people just kind of call ita yield, uh, nibbler, right, and
and you really you don't reveal.
You don't reveal what you'remissing until you start to
protect against it.
I think Um and you had mentionedSDS as well, maybe and this is
an interesting disease becauseeven though we think of it as
this late season phenomenon,right, you get those foliar
(16:28):
symptoms in August.
It is a root rot pathogen justlike any other fusarium.
It infects from the moment thatseed starts to germinate, and
so you know, it kind of fits ina weird spot.
We'll talk a little bit aboutSCN and we might bring up Alevo
at that point.
But you know the fungicideportfolio is strong.
With the addition of Alevoright to protect against things
(16:50):
like sudden death syndrome aswell.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Yeah and Nick no.
Those that's great answers andyou know you were saying
something there.
You know, when you first werehaving that conversation with
Bill.
You're talking about layering,layering the seed treatments,
and I never thought about that.
You know we always talk aboutthat with our, with our weed
control.
You know layering, differentmodes of action, and I never
thought about that on seedtreatment.
So that was really kind ofinteresting.
So let's add on to Bill'slittle tease with football, and
(17:16):
he talked about tackling, toBill's little tease with
football and he talked abouttackling.
So let's talk about blocking.
So we know that we're trying totackle what seed treatments do,
tackle some of the disease.
You know what are seedtreatments or what can we do to
help block some of the earlyseason insects and pests that we
deal with, like aphids, whitegrub, scene cord maggots,
soybean cyst nematode Some ofthose you know.
(17:38):
We think about bean leaf beetlealso.
How can we block some of those?
How can seed treatments helpblock some of those from doing
damage to our soybean seeds?
And what are we doing at BASF?
Or what at BASF can we provideour listeners or give our
listeners to help provide theminformation to help protect some
of that soybean yield potentialout there from those, block it
from those insect damage.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
Yeah, I love keeping the football analogy going right
.
So now we're on my home fieldadvantage.
So I was an entomologist bytraining and I did all my work
on things like soybean aphids,corn rootworm, like that, and so
this is very, very near anddear to the heart.
You know, when we think aboutthose insects you named them
right Beanleaf beetle, seagore,maggot these are insects that
(18:21):
are, I consider these, earlyseason insects and in fact, as
we start to plant soybeans earlyto maximize yield potential for
agronomic reasons, we putourselves into riskier and
riskier situations, especiallywith those two insects.
And so it's important to startwith a strong insecticide from
the start to be able to get that, get the stand established, and
(18:42):
that's true as we start tomaybe drop our seeding right now
, right.
So there's, there's guys outthere doing 115, 120.
That's a lot less than seedsthat we're cutting out, than
maybe 160, 180 back when Istarted in this.
So so that's very.
Now at BASF we've got afantastic insecticide.
It's Poncho Votivo Precise, andso Poncho has been around for a
(19:04):
long time.
It's been used in cornpredominantly, you know, for the
better part of 15, 20 years,and the reason for that has
always been that corn we thinkof, or we have thought of, as
being maybe a little moreintensively managed and a little
more intensively managed and alittle more sensitive to stand
loss, and that's probably true.
But as we start to managesoybeans more seriously and
(19:26):
start taking all of thesefactors together, we know that
it's important to have a stronginsecticide in soybean as well.
And so poncho is thatinsecticide in poncho votivo
precise, and it is lights out onthings like seed corn maggot.
It's really best in class, andso that's really terrific to
have.
Now there's another side ofthis, right.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
You had mentioned nematodes or SCN and that's
important as well.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
In fact, I hate to admit this, but nematodes are
actually maybe a little moreimportant than insects.
In the soybean world,especially SCN, you know, this
is the number one.
It's actually not an insect,right?
It's a pathogen.
So it's the number one pathogenin soybeans.
It causes every year a hundredmillion bushels of yield loss
and somewhere around a billiondollars, basically giving up to
(20:11):
a worm that lives below ground,which is not fun.
And so Poncho Viteo Precise isgoing to add some protection
against nematodes becausethere's a biologic that is
contained in that product.
Now, this is Baxillus firmus.
It is a bacteria that colonizesthe root system and essentially
helps mask that root systemfrom nematodes as they infect,
so it works in a reallyinteresting way.
(20:32):
In that regard.
We've got other products atBASF.
If we mentioned olivo earlierfor sudden death syndrome, we
were talking about diseases.
One of the nice things aboutolivo is that it was initially
developed and thought of as anematicide.
So we we started testing thisto have um see what we could do
against nematodes, and it turnedout to be a great sds product,
(20:54):
and so that's kind of what itbecame.
But it has strong nematodeactivity.
It's a true nematicide and soyou're getting a really heavy
impact on that first generationof nematodes that are out in
that field with olivo seedtreatment.
So really nice to havecomplementary again, multiple
types of modes of action goingagainst the same thing.
That's how you get consistentprotection.
(21:14):
I know all growers out thereare looking for consistency and
performance, right, absolutelyabsolutely, yeah, yeah so.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
So let's go just a little further on soybeans, this
nematode.
You got me thinking aboutsomething here.
So so, those little microscopicworms, they attack the roots,
you know when, when they open upthese little wounds.
I mean, do they allow otherpathogens back to our you know
diseases discussion, or what dothey all do?
Is it only SDS, or is thereother stuff that goes on within
(21:40):
that that they allow in?
I'm kind of curious what yourthoughts are there.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
Yeah, yeah.
So there's been a longassociation between SDS and SCN
over the years.
And part of that is because youknow those nematodes are
creating little wounds.
Imagine, you know, getting, youknow, small little cuts all
over your feet.
They make it very hard to walkand stand tall right.
Soybean crop is the same wayhard to yield strong when you've
got all these wounds.
(22:03):
And it's more than just thepathogen that causes SDS, it's
really any pathogen in the soilthat can infect through a wound
site.
And beyond that, it's not justthe fact that they transmit
diseases, it's the fact thatthey're robbing nutrients from
that plant, causing pod abortion.
You know there's really hardlyany above ground symptoms with
(22:25):
SCN whatsoever.
That's why growers don'trecognize it as a huge problem.
But the reality is they causeyield loss through things like
pod abortion.
Well, a plant that's abortingsome pods is going to be the
same height, it's going to bethe same color.
Probably it's going to look thesame.
It's just going to have fewerpods.
You don't see that really untilyou go across it with the
combine and see it in the yieldmonitor.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Yeah, no, that's great, Nick, as I think through
that one, you know, being thenumber one yield driving pest
out there, I think it's reallyimportant to understand that
it's not just thinking about SCNas that, you know, it's
everything else that it creates,right?
I think you put those all thosetogether.
So, you know, continue thefootball analogy and you think
about, you know we've, you know,think about all the NFL games
and all these trick plays thatare going on.
(23:08):
There's always this kind ofthis new guy that we don't
really understand.
Our scouting report says, hey,what's going on out here, who is
this?
And for that I'm going to bringin Red Crown Rod.
You know, kind of, what is thatguy out there doing to us?
And he's kind of new and wereally don't know how to defend
against him.
So what are we doing at?
Speaker 4 (23:28):
BASF to understand that one.
Yeah, as soon as you said new,I know where this conversation
was going.
So red crown rot is a disease.
Actually, it's been aroundlonger than you think, right, so
it's in the 1960s.
We had this down in thesouthern US, right Louisiana
areas where we grew peanuts andsoybean in rotation.
It's just recently been causingissues in the Midwest.
(23:49):
So we know it's present inKentucky, illinois, missouri,
indiana, and so we're just kindof keeping an eye out for it.
We know that in areas wherewe've got it, so you know, in
Illinois, kind of just east ofSt Louis, that's a pretty bad
area, but if you think aboutMissouri, it's just been
reported right, so it's not allover.
(24:09):
Let's put it into context inthat regard, but it is something
growers need to be keeping aneye out for.
A lot of the pathology of redcrown rot is very similar to SDS
, so they're very similar.
The one thing we do have goingfor us, though, is that, unlike
SDS, it does not survive on cornresidue or debris or corn roots
for that fact.
(24:30):
So crop rotation is going to bevery important for this.
Still unknown what roleplanting date is going to have.
We don't have any knownresistance on our soybean
varieties, which is veryunfortunate.
We've been testing Alevo seedtreatment against red crown rot
for the past couple of years andjust last fall we were able to
file for an emergency label forthe use of red crown or for the
(24:51):
use of Alebo against red crownrot.
So what we're talking abouthere is a very high rate of that
seed treatment.
It's something that you want touse if you have to.
We know it's going to providesome good protection, but
considering those otheragronomic things, I think it's
going to be important for redcrown rot as we move on with
this disease.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Yeah, yeah, I know Hear a little bit about it too.
We're just hearing some faintconversations about it, but it's
something obviously we're goingto keep our eye on going into
2025 and where we're going to gofrom there.
So next question I have I don'treally have a good football
analogy for, like Bill did, soI'm going to punt on the
football analogy with thisquestion, but you did bring it
up a little bit earlier in yourconversation.
(25:34):
What about biologicals?
We hear a lot about biologicalsout there.
Basically, does BSF haveanything out there that they're
bringing?
But what's your thought on someof these biologicals out there?
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Yeah, it's a really hot topic and you hear about
this all the time in the popularpress and people are really
talking about it.
But it can be very hard to knowwhat to use in this space.
So I'm excited about the rolethat biologicals can play.
But here's what I will say.
It's important to know whatthey're doing.
You can't just put a biologicalout there and say you know what
(26:05):
, this is good because it's abiological and it's going to
give you yield.
It doesn't work that way.
What you need to do is knowwhat the mode of action is and
have a clear path to yield.
But you know, bushels in thebin At BASF we've got a
fantastic biological in Vault IPPlus.
Right, it's a soybean inoculant.
So you think about that.
That's like the originalbiological in soybeans and it is
(26:27):
a specific strain that's beenselected to provide as much
nitrogen to that plant whilestealing fewer resources from
that plant, right?
So when you don't inoculate,you're essentially using the
native rhizobia in the soil andthey could be okay at producing
some nitrogen, but they'rereally stealing some nutrients
from that plant on the back endto survive.
(26:48):
Bolt IP Plus is fantastic.
Now, beyond that, there's anadditional biologic or a pair of
biologics in BALT-IP plus.
These are two bacteria andthese aren't just again some
magical bacteria, right?
These are EPA-registeredbiofungicides, so there's a
clear mode of action.
They're providing protection,again against P azzerium
(27:10):
rhizoctonia.
So my mode of advice for peoplewho are considering biologicals
is to say what is the mode ofaction and do I need that mode
of action?
And it's clear with somethinglike Vault IP+ that that's
definitely something that can beuseful to a grower.
Yeah, good point.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Yeah, that's cool, nick.
So, yes, we're pending end ofthe game here in the fourth
quarter and we're off to apotential overtime.
So you got any other commentsthat you want to discuss that
you want to go into further onthat we didn't talk about today.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
Yeah, it feels like we were just in the preseason
here not too long ago, but wewere getting ready for game time
, with planting upon us, right.
So not to be too corny there,but planting upon us, right, so
not to be too corny there.
But the reality is, we all havea good responsibility in the
industry as well as growers,right and that's to use these
products, these seed treatmentproducts, in a sustainable way.
(28:03):
And so that's why, again, wewill be launching or
participating in the Be Surecampaign, and what this is is
just a campaign to remindgrowers that there are certain
things we need to do when we'reusing seed treatments, right.
So things like not leavingspilled seed on the ground,
using these things in a waywhere we're not going to put
wildlife at risk, and also usingthings like advanced seed
(28:24):
lubricants to just really cutdown on the environmental
exposure.
You know I don't want to be tooserious about this, but you
know we're in a we're in asituation where we're always at
risk of losing these tools, andI don't know about you, but
every time we've lost a tool,you know it has not been, it's
been harder to build the buildthe house, right?
So, anyway, I just encourageyou this planting season to
(28:45):
think about some of these thingsand how you're using the seed,
handling the seed and just, youknow, take an extra time and
think about it.
So yeah, that's all I've got foryou.
Excellent Thanks.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Thank you, nick, and thanks for joining us today.
We really appreciate yourexpertise out there and we know
if, whenever we've got anyquestions on anything with seed
treatment, you know you're ourfirst call because you're our
company expert and you know alot about it.
So thanks for taking the timetoday and meeting with me and
Bill, and we really appreciateit, and we'll be bringing you on
for other episodes as weprogress with this Spillin' the
(29:19):
Beans podcast and get moreinformation from you.
So, nick, thanks a lot for yourtime and have a great day.
Yeah, thank you guys, so muchfor having me Anytime Happy to
visit.
Awesome.
Thank you, nick.
Have a great day.
So Bill heard a lot, learned alot about seed treatments today.
Nick knows a lot about seedtreatments today.
What did you garner from ourconversations today with Nick?
(29:41):
That could be that brings somevalue to our listeners and help
maximize some of those yieldswe're looking at out there for
soybeans.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Yeah, no, I think right, wrong or different, to
continue the football analogy.
You know we are kind of reallyin the preseason here and we're
starting to, you know, get ourgame plan put together and you
know we definitely want toinclude seed treatments as one
big component of that.
So I think that's a reallygreat concept to really kind of
continue our little bit offootball analogy here.
So you know, you think about.
(30:10):
You know one thing I hadn'treally thought about was
fusariums everywhere.
I mean it's just you knowthere's all kinds of different
diseases basically in our soilsthat we've got to protect.
You know those young seedlingsagain.
So if you think about that oneor how damaging that one can be,
there's lots of pieces of thatpuzzle there.
And you know you think aboutlayer and all that.
You brought it up.
Layer and all the differentmodes of action.
(30:31):
You know I think together, andespecially the dual bio
fungicides that have all type Dplus, that's kind of cool.
And you add another one inthere, theoretically you could
end up with seven differentmodes of action going against a
lot of these seedling diseases.
So that's pretty cool there aswell.
So you know red crown rot andAlevo.
I mean that's pretty cool toknow that we're looking at that
for a potential solution.
(30:52):
You know, to aid a lot of ourcustomers in that are battling
that.
You know, here, here in our twostates Iowa, nebraska we really
don't have it yet.
I'm sure it's around somewherethat we haven't found it yet.
But you know, definitely in theEast where Nick's at,
definitely they fight it a lotmore.
So you know, I think that'sthat's kind of the main things.
How about you?
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Yeah, you know, really the biggest take-home
point I would have for ourlisteners is, as you said, we're
in the preseason.
To me, seed treatment is one ofthose things that you cannot
skimp on the value that itbrings.
It always has a return oninvestment out there, because
you're always going to havediseases, You're always going to
have insects and pests.
(31:30):
And the other thing to thinkabout too once you plant that
soybean, you cannot go back andput a seed treatment on that
seed.
It's in the ground, it's thereand we know, as we're going
earlier planting.
We know, as we're doing otherthings that we've done with
management practices no-till,strip-till, some of those things
.
Soybeans sometimes stay in theground longer we have adverse
(31:50):
conditions.
It might be ideal when we plantthem.
Then all of a sudden it startsoff cool and wet for about two
or three weeks before they cancome up.
So being able to have that outthere, it's like insurance on
your house.
You never want to have to useit, but it's there and you're
always having that insurance outthere to make sure if something
adverse comes in.
You've got that protection outthere that you can't put on
after it's put in the ground.
So to me it's one of the mosteconomically sound decisions you
(32:12):
can make on trying to achievehigh yield soybeans out there
and get a good return oninvestment.
So, with that being said, Bill,our time's up today, so is
there any further questionsyou'd like to ask before we sign
out to our group today?
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Nope, nope, I think we hit them today.
Usually I have one, but todayI'm going to punt and we'll let
it back to you.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
So sounds hunt and we'll let it put it back to you.
So Sounds good.
Last football analogy we'll gowith.
So thanks again for joining ustoday.
On Spilling the Beans, weinvite you to download the Grow
Smart Live app for moreresources and share this podcast
with other growers.
So for myself and Bill, we wantto say thank you and make it a
great day.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Thanks for joining us on Spilling the Beans, where
every episode gets you one stepcloser to maximizing your
soybean profitability.
If you found today's insightsvaluable, subscribe and leave us
a review on your favoriteplatform.
Download the Grow Smart Liveapp for more resources and share
the podcast with other growers.
See you next week with moreexpert tips to help you grow
(33:07):
smarter and achieve the bestyields yet.
Liberty Outlook, zidua, zidua,pro, poncho, motivo, precise,
endura, rivitec, costax, cs,elevo, vault, ip+, relenia,
dryaxor, liberty Ultra areregistered trademarks of BASF.
Nemosphere, zorina and Voraxorare trademarks of BASF.
Enlist, enlist One, enlist Duoand Enlist E3 are registered
(33:27):
trademarks of Corteva AgritiansLLC.
The transgenic event in EnlistE3 Soybeans is jointly developed
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Chitavo is a registeredtrademark of MS Technologies and
exclusively distributed by BSF.
All other trademarks are theproperty of their respective
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affiliation with or endorsementby its owner.
Always read and follow labeldirections Before mixing
(33:48):
components.
Always conduct a compatibilityjar test.
Always consult respectiveproduct labels for specific
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The most restrictive labelapplies.
Natai Fastax CS is arestricted-use pesticide.
Nemasphere Zorina and Voraxorare not registered and not
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This information is providedfor educational purposes only
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Any sale of this product afterregistration is obtained shall
be based solely on theEPA-approved product label and
(34:09):
any claims regarding productsafety and efficacy shall be
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The views expressed by BASFemployees and guests are their
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Growsmart is a registeredtrademark of BASF.
Copyright 2025, basfCorporation.
All rights reserved.
Welcome to Spilling the Beans, the podcast that
spills the secrets to unlockingyour soybean farm's full
potential.
Every Tuesday, your hosts, billBackus and Jeff Mueller, dive
into expert strategies andinnovative solutions that will
help you boost your yields andmaximize your returns.
Whether you're a seasonedgrower or new to soybean farming
, we're here to help you succeed.
Let's get started.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hello and welcome to another episode of Spilling the
Beans.
I'm Jeff Mueller.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
And I'm Bill Backus.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
And thanks again for joining us today as we dive into
the world of soybeans, coveringvarious topics and providing
insights to the soybean industry.
Bill.
How are we doing today?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Doing well.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
You know we're into March here and March here and
we've basically just beenfinishing up here at Commodity
Classic, so really lookingforward to getting planting
going here in a month.
It's been really good and everyyear it's always interesting
just how many good questions,how many good conversations that
you end up having, and we'vehad quite a few on, you know,
soybeans.
This year, you know marketprice is down a little bit, so
(01:11):
it's all about producing as manybushels as we can.
So we've had a lot of goodconversations, a lot of stories,
so it's been really interestingPart of that.
When we're talking about growinghigh-yield soybeans or getting
a good return on investment,soybeans is one of the
safeguards that we can use out.
There is seed treatments, andseed treatments is something
that's come very prevalent inthe last few years.
(01:32):
You know, if you think about it, Bill, you know when you got
started in this industry.
Let me ask this question howmany beans were treated?
Or maybe the better way to sayit is did you even anybody even
talk about treating soybeans?
Maybe that's the question tohave.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yeah, no, great question, jeff, and really
looking forward to this episode.
Your early seed treatments youknow I spent a lot of time, you
know, past, you know I don'tknow how many decades thinking
about soybeans.
But yeah, like you say, when wefirst started both of us back
in the day, you know bin-runbeans, a lot of stuff just
pulling right out of the bin,you know definitely didn't get a
seed treatment on.
Then you kind of got a littlebit of people talking about some
(02:16):
single modes of action, youknow, with some on-farm type
treaters and different thingslike that.
So you know, I rememberbasically on the you know family
farm, I mean shoot, it washardly anything ever was treated
, it was always going outuntreated.
You know, and you did that aswe've talked previously on.
You know, on our seeding ratestuff, you know that what I call
controlled spillage was reallywhat, what the planting was
right and we really didn't haveyou know much stuff going on
(02:37):
there.
So how about you?
Anything else you got from yourside?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yeah, yeah, and you know same thing.
You know you didn't even thinkabout it.
Then when you don't hear about20 years ago, they start talking
about it.
It's like what are you talkingabout?
Putting seed treatment onsoybeans?
You know it's soybeans, right,we grab them out of the bin.
But things changed the lastcouple of days a lot and it's
brought a lot of things to thetable and you think about that's
really kind of interestingbecause historically soybeans
have been widely planted withoutseed treatments.
We still have some of it goingon now but there's a lot of it
(03:03):
going on.
But as we continue to strivefor higher yields, we understand
and we continue to findsoybeans are very susceptible to
a lot of diseases out there.
So we've understood, or we'recoming into understanding, the
value of seed treatments outthere and protecting that seed
early and getting a nice plantto come up early, Some of the
value it brings on helping tomaximize some of that yield, not
(03:25):
only from early season diseasesbut also from insects, early
season insects that we have outthere and really, if you think
about it a lot of times it'salways thought about corn and
then the soybeans orhappenstance when we go through
there.
So that's really beeninteresting about seed
treatments.
Bill, you've always got a storytime for us and I know, again,
it's something that you'rereally passionate about.
(03:46):
But you know, tell us a littlebit about something that you've
experienced with your seedtreatments and soybeans and
where we've gone from where wewere at to where we're going.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Yeah, yeah, no great, great to like to tell little
stories here.
So you know, a couple, coupleI'm going to kind of weave in a
couple on this one here todayduring this episode.
So really, really, you know,right when we were like we
started off a little bit thereon you know family farm, not
doing a lot there, and then youkind of get into doing some and
then you, you know, youobviously start working in the
seed industry and you startlearning more about what's going
(04:16):
on.
You really want to know why,right.
So so you know, some of mymaster's work actually was on
seed treatments and really duginto you know what's going on
and finding out that it really ahealthier plant from the
beginning.
Uh really ends up being, youknow, higher yields and
basically have more pods, youhave more seeds per pod,
basically all kind of tiestogether just for for a
healthier plant all the waythrough.
(04:36):
So a lot of the trial work thatyou and I've done and you know,
working with, uh, one of ourguests that we have here, or a
guest that we have here today onhis team, we do a lot of trials
across our entire geography,right.
So looking at a lot ofdifferent things, from diseases
to stand counts to soybean cyst,nematode to, you know, all the
way, plant health, sudden deatha lot of different things that
(04:58):
we're going to talk about herewith our guests.
So a lot of trial work thatwe've done and we continue to do
that and continue to learn.
You know, across the board andacross the entire areas that we
cover that how important seedtreatments are, especially in
soybeans, as we're focused onsoybeans.
You know we definitely talkabout corn a lot too, but very
critical for a corn plant tocome up healthy.
But you know, even more so as wethink through soybeans, we're
(05:21):
seeing more and more go outtreated and you know, rightfully
so, as we're striving for highyields.
So you know, I think with thatI'll go ahead and introduce our
guest here today.
Nick Tinsley is a seedtreatment technical field rep
with BISF covering the EasternCorn Belt.
He is responsible for researchand development activities and
customer support related to BISFseed treatment portfolio.
Nick received his BS, ms andPhD from the University of
(05:44):
Illinois and has 17 years ofexperience in agriculture.
So I think there was abasketball game or something
wasn't there, jeff, thathappened here recently with
Illinois.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Yeah, yeah, Three weeks ago, and I think it was
Nebraska and Illinois, andNebraska was on a six-game
losing streak and Illinois wasranked 18 at the time.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Hey, I didn't think this was my first podcast.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Hey, even a broken clock's right twice a day, nick,
so it just happened to be ournight.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Here we go, here we go.
Welcome, nick.
So again, glad to have you here.
So I guess, if anything elseyou want to introduce about
yourself.
But you know, and then I guessI'll tie into the first question
, so you know you're passionateabout seed treatments, Nick.
So why, why?
So?
Why are you so passionate aboutseed treatments?
Speaker 4 (06:29):
Yeah, yeah, I really am, and I've been working with
seed treatments for the betterpart of 17 years, ever since I
started.
I remember the first one of thefirst trials I had were these
soybeans.
Soybeans and soybean aphidswere really bad in Illinois at
the time and they were theseblue beans and I thought, well,
(06:50):
how is this going to have anyimpact whatsoever on a pest that
comes in in a few months?
And sure enough it did, andthat was the root of my master's
work was on seed treatment.
So I've been involved withthese for a very long time and I
would say my passion is aroundjust the vulnerability of the
crop at the time where we'retrying to get some protection
out of seed treatment.
(07:10):
So you think about a soybeanplant as it emerges that VE V1
timeframe.
That's one of the most criticaltimeframes in terms of that
crop being able to withstandsome injury from diseases,
insects and other things.
So that's a big part of it andI think beyond that.
You know, I was a lineman when Iplayed high school football and
(07:31):
people don't really think aboutseed treatments, right.
So I'm used to this unsung herorole and so much of the crop,
right.
We talk about fungicidespraying in season.
We talk about managing weedswith post sprays and even
harvest.
A lot of this stuff with seedtreatment goes on before that
crop's even planted, and so Ikind of like operating in that
(07:51):
element.
There's a sustainability elementto seed treatments, right?
So just the nature of how muchproduct we're using.
Right, it's used very precisely, we're not using very much of
it, and so there's a lot ofadvantages to using a seed
treatment over something like aspray, which obviously are still
a part of the overall program.
But I do like that about seedtreatment.
(08:12):
And finally, last thing is, Igrew up in rural central
Illinois, so I like working withfolks in that community all
over the country really to helpgive them a lot more flexibility
.
So if you think about what seedtreatments have done, it's
allowed for earlier planting,it's allowed for maybe
modification or reducing seedingrates to be a little bit more
(08:33):
optimal.
These are things that 20, 25years ago people weren't able to
do.
And you mentioned this Billabout controlled spill.
I mean, things are so precisenow.
I think all those reasonsreally tie into why this is such
a passion for me and really thereason to get up and go to work
.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
So yeah, no, those are.
Those are great points, nick.
You know, if you think about ittoo, we always talk about
breaking that next level or nextnext barrier of yield potential
out there, and really seedtreatments has been a big part
of that breaking some of thatbarriers out there for some of
those individuals as we're goingthrough there.
If you're thinking about it,though, you know everybody's got
(09:10):
a seed treatment now, right,everybody's offering things.
We got, you know, so-and-so'soffering it or so-and-so's
offering it.
Where we're at, there's so muchon the market and our listeners
hear all this informationcoming from everybody out there.
You know, what would yourecommend to our listeners to do
, to how to sort through thissea of seed treatments?
I mean, what, basically?
What do, what are some of thebasics they need to have from
(09:32):
going on that and then like withsome add-ons of that?
So can you kind of help ourlisteners sort through that sea
of seed treatments a little bit?
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Yeah, it can be extremely difficult in seed
treatment, more so than otherelements of producing a crop.
I'll admit that right away, anda lot of that relates back to
you know.
All this stuff is done ahead oftime, so you know when you're
looking for advice on what touse as a seed treatment, I think
one of the best sources ofadvice you can get from is your
(10:01):
local seed agronomist, right?
So seed treatments by theirvery nature are really tied in
with seed, and these seedcompanies that produce these
seeds are really in tune withthis, and so visiting with seed
agronomists is really great.
You know a lot of, especiallywith soybean.
A lot of that treating goes onat that retail level.
So your local retailer is goingto have a lot of great
(10:22):
information on that.
But you're right, there's a lotout there.
So I think typically what Iwould recommend is you want to
look for brands from a reputablecompany?
Okay, and that's not to saythat there are bad actors out
there, but you want a companythat you know, that you can
recognize, that you're familiarwith, and you also want that
company to be one of these thatis heavily involved in the R&D
(10:45):
process or the research anddevelopment process.
So every year at BASF, you know, we put out thousands of trials
, spend a tremendous amount ofmoney on developing the next
product, the more safe product,the more effective product, and
the more you can use seedtreatments that are from
companies like that, the betteroff you're going to be, because
(11:06):
you're going to know those arerigorously tested and they don't
come to market if they don'twork right.
And we'll talk about this, Ithink, a little later.
But one of the areas to be alittle leery of is the
biological space because that isparticularly clouded with a
regulatory environment that maynot be as rigorous as some of
the chemistry standards, and soI'm sure we'll get into
(11:29):
biologics here sooner or later.
But just be leery of thepromises of biologics.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
you know, bugging a jug from Doug or something like
that biologics you know, bug ina jug from Doug or something
like that, right?
So exactly, yeah, bug in a jugfrom Doug that's making it his
bathtub at home, right, that'sright, that boils down to you.
So, Nick let's you know for ourlisteners here.
Let's get a little morespecific.
You know, use your yourfootball a little bit there and
let's tackle right.
(11:55):
Let's tackle some, some otherseedling diseasesling diseases
like pythium, you know, fusarium.
Let's look at rhizoctonium,maybe phomopsis.
You know, what do we have atBASF here that we can use to
inform our listeners about someof the products that we have,
and you know why they're maybe alittle bit different.
Whatever else you want to shareabout, you know the products we
have at BASF.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Yeah, that's great, and this is where the passion
comes in.
So you just mentioned a coupleof seedling diseases and
typically when a grower maybehas an issue with some stand in
the spring, it's well, I've gotdamping off or I've got seed rot
, okay, and that's where itstops.
And the reality is each ofthese diseases have their own
(12:36):
unique situations where they aremore problematic or not.
So, for example, rhizoctoniatends to be a little worse when
it's warm out, whereas thingslike Pythium or Fusarium might
be worse when it's cold out, andso knowing that your seed
treatment is protecting againsteach of these diseases is very
important.
At BASF, we have a greatfungicide package called Obvious
(12:56):
Plus Fungicide Seed Treatment.
Now the nice thing about thisis it has four different active
ingredients.
Now, some of these will targetthings like Pythium and
Phytophthora and others willtarget things like Pemopsis,
rhizoctonia and Fusarium.
But the really nice thing abouthaving four active ingredients
in that is that you get thisoverlapping protection.
So there's never a situationwhere you've just got one
(13:18):
disease being covered by oneactive ingredient.
So if you think about you know,anytime you want to provide
protection to something, youwant to make sure you have a
backup in place right and that'skind of.
That's kind of how that worksand really, beyond that, the
newest fungicidal activeingredient I mentioned that R&D
process, the newest fungicidalAI in BSS portfolio is this
(13:40):
Revisol molecule.
Now, this is a new fungicide.
You may be familiar with itwith foliar products like
Revitec or Veltema.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
And we leverage that as a seed treatment for
something called Relaenia.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Now, relaenia is really nice because it's an
additional add-on, but youessentially provide extra
protection against Fus andrhizoctonia and I would argue, I
think that these seedling rots,these are root rotting type
pathogens.
You think about fusarium.
It may not always cause standloss, but I guarantee it's on
most acres in the Midwest and soyou really don't understand
(14:15):
what you might be missing untilyou add in something like a
premium relaneate and revealsome extra yield at the end of
the year.
So that's kind of a rundown ofthe BSF fungicide offerings and
really a strong level ofprotection across the board
there.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Yeah, I know that's yeah, and you know you said go
ahead, bill.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
I got a follow-up question, sorry.
So as you think through youknow I want to ask about SDS
here.
Go ahead, bill.
Operators.
They tell us that that one hasthe most vigorous you know
growth of anyone out there.
So I'm curious why?
(15:02):
Why do you see something likethat happen, you know, when it's
just you know we say it'sprotected against some seedling
diseases, but what else is goingon within that?
Do you think just a hype of youknow?
Curious if you have anyobservation or seen anything
like that.
I've seen it as well.
It just looks like the newmagic sauce that just kind of
making that thing just grow andfly out of the ground like crazy
.
So curious what your thoughtsare on that relating.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
No, that's a great question, bill, you know.
We do know that there are someseed treatments that will
provide some plant health andplant vigor type of effects.
The neonicotinoid seedtreatments are known to do this
right, and we get a little bitof that out of the F500 molecule
and Obvious Plus, but I thinkwith Relenia.
(15:46):
I think what it boils down tois that fusarium is everywhere
and it doesn't always causestand loss, and so if you're in
a situation where you plantedand you get any moisture
whatsoever, that plant will beinfected with some species of
fusarium Um and, and that is aroot rotting pathogen, um, a lot
(16:06):
of people just kind of call ita yield, uh, nibbler, right, and
and you really you don't reveal.
You don't reveal what you'remissing until you start to
protect against it.
I think Um and you had mentionedSDS as well, maybe and this is
an interesting disease becauseeven though we think of it as
this late season phenomenon,right, you get those foliar
(16:28):
symptoms in August.
It is a root rot pathogen justlike any other fusarium.
It infects from the moment thatseed starts to germinate, and
so you know, it kind of fits ina weird spot.
We'll talk a little bit aboutSCN and we might bring up Alevo
at that point.
But you know the fungicideportfolio is strong.
With the addition of Alevoright to protect against things
(16:50):
like sudden death syndrome aswell.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Yeah and Nick no.
Those that's great answers andyou know you were saying
something there.
You know, when you first werehaving that conversation with
Bill.
You're talking about layering,layering the seed treatments,
and I never thought about that.
You know we always talk aboutthat with our, with our weed
control.
You know layering, differentmodes of action, and I never
thought about that on seedtreatment.
So that was really kind ofinteresting.
So let's add on to Bill'slittle tease with football, and
(17:16):
he talked about tackling, toBill's little tease with
football and he talked abouttackling.
So let's talk about blocking.
So we know that we're trying totackle what seed treatments do,
tackle some of the disease.
You know what are seedtreatments or what can we do to
help block some of the earlyseason insects and pests that we
deal with, like aphids, whitegrub, scene cord maggots,
soybean cyst nematode Some ofthose you know.
(17:38):
We think about bean leaf beetlealso.
How can we block some of those?
How can seed treatments helpblock some of those from doing
damage to our soybean seeds?
And what are we doing at BASF?
Or what at BASF can we provideour listeners or give our
listeners to help provide theminformation to help protect some
of that soybean yield potentialout there from those, block it
from those insect damage.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
Yeah, I love keeping the football analogy going right
.
So now we're on my home fieldadvantage.
So I was an entomologist bytraining and I did all my work
on things like soybean aphids,corn rootworm, like that, and so
this is very, very near anddear to the heart.
You know, when we think aboutthose insects you named them
right Beanleaf beetle, seagore,maggot these are insects that
(18:21):
are, I consider these, earlyseason insects and in fact, as
we start to plant soybeans earlyto maximize yield potential for
agronomic reasons, we putourselves into riskier and
riskier situations, especiallywith those two insects.
And so it's important to startwith a strong insecticide from
the start to be able to get that, get the stand established, and
(18:42):
that's true as we start tomaybe drop our seeding right now
, right.
So there's, there's guys outthere doing 115, 120.
That's a lot less than seedsthat we're cutting out, than
maybe 160, 180 back when Istarted in this.
So so that's very.
Now at BASF we've got afantastic insecticide.
It's Poncho Votivo Precise, andso Poncho has been around for a
(19:04):
long time.
It's been used in cornpredominantly, you know, for the
better part of 15, 20 years,and the reason for that has
always been that corn we thinkof, or we have thought of, as
being maybe a little moreintensively managed and a little
more intensively managed and alittle more sensitive to stand
loss, and that's probably true.
But as we start to managesoybeans more seriously and
(19:26):
start taking all of thesefactors together, we know that
it's important to have a stronginsecticide in soybean as well.
And so poncho is thatinsecticide in poncho votivo
precise, and it is lights out onthings like seed corn maggot.
It's really best in class, andso that's really terrific to
have.
Now there's another side ofthis, right.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
You had mentioned nematodes or SCN and that's
important as well.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
In fact, I hate to admit this, but nematodes are
actually maybe a little moreimportant than insects.
In the soybean world,especially SCN, you know, this
is the number one.
It's actually not an insect,right?
It's a pathogen.
So it's the number one pathogenin soybeans.
It causes every year a hundredmillion bushels of yield loss
and somewhere around a billiondollars, basically giving up to
(20:11):
a worm that lives below ground,which is not fun.
And so Poncho Viteo Precise isgoing to add some protection
against nematodes becausethere's a biologic that is
contained in that product.
Now, this is Baxillus firmus.
It is a bacteria that colonizesthe root system and essentially
helps mask that root systemfrom nematodes as they infect,
so it works in a reallyinteresting way.
(20:32):
In that regard.
We've got other products atBASF.
If we mentioned olivo earlierfor sudden death syndrome, we
were talking about diseases.
One of the nice things aboutolivo is that it was initially
developed and thought of as anematicide.
So we we started testing thisto have um see what we could do
against nematodes, and it turnedout to be a great sds product,
(20:54):
and so that's kind of what itbecame.
But it has strong nematodeactivity.
It's a true nematicide and soyou're getting a really heavy
impact on that first generationof nematodes that are out in
that field with olivo seedtreatment.
So really nice to havecomplementary again, multiple
types of modes of action goingagainst the same thing.
That's how you get consistentprotection.
(21:14):
I know all growers out thereare looking for consistency and
performance, right, absolutelyabsolutely, yeah, yeah so.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
So let's go just a little further on soybeans, this
nematode.
You got me thinking aboutsomething here.
So so, those little microscopicworms, they attack the roots,
you know when, when they open upthese little wounds.
I mean, do they allow otherpathogens back to our you know
diseases discussion, or what dothey all do?
Is it only SDS, or is thereother stuff that goes on within
(21:40):
that that they allow in?
I'm kind of curious what yourthoughts are there.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
Yeah, yeah.
So there's been a longassociation between SDS and SCN
over the years.
And part of that is because youknow those nematodes are
creating little wounds.
Imagine, you know, getting, youknow, small little cuts all
over your feet.
They make it very hard to walkand stand tall right.
Soybean crop is the same wayhard to yield strong when you've
got all these wounds.
(22:03):
And it's more than just thepathogen that causes SDS, it's
really any pathogen in the soilthat can infect through a wound
site.
And beyond that, it's not justthe fact that they transmit
diseases, it's the fact thatthey're robbing nutrients from
that plant, causing pod abortion.
You know there's really hardlyany above ground symptoms with
(22:25):
SCN whatsoever.
That's why growers don'trecognize it as a huge problem.
But the reality is they causeyield loss through things like
pod abortion.
Well, a plant that's abortingsome pods is going to be the
same height, it's going to bethe same color.
Probably it's going to look thesame.
It's just going to have fewerpods.
You don't see that really untilyou go across it with the
combine and see it in the yieldmonitor.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Yeah, no, that's great, Nick, as I think through
that one, you know, being thenumber one yield driving pest
out there, I think it's reallyimportant to understand that
it's not just thinking about SCNas that, you know, it's
everything else that it creates,right?
I think you put those all thosetogether.
So, you know, continue thefootball analogy and you think
about, you know we've, you know,think about all the NFL games
and all these trick plays thatare going on.
(23:08):
There's always this kind ofthis new guy that we don't
really understand.
Our scouting report says, hey,what's going on out here, who is
this?
And for that I'm going to bringin Red Crown Rod.
You know, kind of, what is thatguy out there doing to us?
And he's kind of new and wereally don't know how to defend
against him.
So what are we doing at?
Speaker 4 (23:28):
BASF to understand that one.
Yeah, as soon as you said new,I know where this conversation
was going.
So red crown rot is a disease.
Actually, it's been aroundlonger than you think, right, so
it's in the 1960s.
We had this down in thesouthern US, right Louisiana
areas where we grew peanuts andsoybean in rotation.
It's just recently been causingissues in the Midwest.
(23:49):
So we know it's present inKentucky, illinois, missouri,
indiana, and so we're just kindof keeping an eye out for it.
We know that in areas wherewe've got it, so you know, in
Illinois, kind of just east ofSt Louis, that's a pretty bad
area, but if you think aboutMissouri, it's just been
reported right, so it's not allover.
(24:09):
Let's put it into context inthat regard, but it is something
growers need to be keeping aneye out for.
A lot of the pathology of redcrown rot is very similar to SDS
, so they're very similar.
The one thing we do have goingfor us, though, is that, unlike
SDS, it does not survive on cornresidue or debris or corn roots
for that fact.
(24:30):
So crop rotation is going to bevery important for this.
Still unknown what roleplanting date is going to have.
We don't have any knownresistance on our soybean
varieties, which is veryunfortunate.
We've been testing Alevo seedtreatment against red crown rot
for the past couple of years andjust last fall we were able to
file for an emergency label forthe use of red crown or for the
(24:51):
use of Alebo against red crownrot.
So what we're talking abouthere is a very high rate of that
seed treatment.
It's something that you want touse if you have to.
We know it's going to providesome good protection, but
considering those otheragronomic things, I think it's
going to be important for redcrown rot as we move on with
this disease.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Yeah, yeah, I know Hear a little bit about it too.
We're just hearing some faintconversations about it, but it's
something obviously we're goingto keep our eye on going into
2025 and where we're going to gofrom there.
So next question I have I don'treally have a good football
analogy for, like Bill did, soI'm going to punt on the
football analogy with thisquestion, but you did bring it
up a little bit earlier in yourconversation.
(25:34):
What about biologicals?
We hear a lot about biologicalsout there.
Basically, does BSF haveanything out there that they're
bringing?
But what's your thought on someof these biologicals out there?
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Yeah, it's a really hot topic and you hear about
this all the time in the popularpress and people are really
talking about it.
But it can be very hard to knowwhat to use in this space.
So I'm excited about the rolethat biologicals can play.
But here's what I will say.
It's important to know whatthey're doing.
You can't just put a biologicalout there and say you know what
(26:05):
, this is good because it's abiological and it's going to
give you yield.
It doesn't work that way.
What you need to do is knowwhat the mode of action is and
have a clear path to yield.
But you know, bushels in thebin At BASF we've got a
fantastic biological in Vault IPPlus.
Right, it's a soybean inoculant.
So you think about that.
That's like the originalbiological in soybeans and it is
(26:27):
a specific strain that's beenselected to provide as much
nitrogen to that plant whilestealing fewer resources from
that plant, right?
So when you don't inoculate,you're essentially using the
native rhizobia in the soil andthey could be okay at producing
some nitrogen, but they'rereally stealing some nutrients
from that plant on the back endto survive.
(26:48):
Bolt IP Plus is fantastic.
Now, beyond that, there's anadditional biologic or a pair of
biologics in BALT-IP plus.
These are two bacteria andthese aren't just again some
magical bacteria, right?
These are EPA-registeredbiofungicides, so there's a
clear mode of action.
They're providing protection,again against P azzerium
(27:10):
rhizoctonia.
So my mode of advice for peoplewho are considering biologicals
is to say what is the mode ofaction and do I need that mode
of action?
And it's clear with somethinglike Vault IP+ that that's
definitely something that can beuseful to a grower.
Yeah, good point.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Yeah, that's cool, nick.
So, yes, we're pending end ofthe game here in the fourth
quarter and we're off to apotential overtime.
So you got any other commentsthat you want to discuss that
you want to go into further onthat we didn't talk about today.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
Yeah, it feels like we were just in the preseason
here not too long ago, but wewere getting ready for game time
, with planting upon us, right.
So not to be too corny there,but planting upon us, right, so
not to be too corny there.
But the reality is, we all havea good responsibility in the
industry as well as growers,right and that's to use these
products, these seed treatmentproducts, in a sustainable way.
(28:03):
And so that's why, again, wewill be launching or
participating in the Be Surecampaign, and what this is is
just a campaign to remindgrowers that there are certain
things we need to do when we'reusing seed treatments, right.
So things like not leavingspilled seed on the ground,
using these things in a waywhere we're not going to put
wildlife at risk, and also usingthings like advanced seed
(28:24):
lubricants to just really cutdown on the environmental
exposure.
You know I don't want to be tooserious about this, but you
know we're in a we're in asituation where we're always at
risk of losing these tools, andI don't know about you, but
every time we've lost a tool,you know it has not been, it's
been harder to build the buildthe house, right?
So, anyway, I just encourageyou this planting season to
(28:45):
think about some of these thingsand how you're using the seed,
handling the seed and just, youknow, take an extra time and
think about it.
So yeah, that's all I've got foryou.
Excellent Thanks.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Thank you, nick, and thanks for joining us today.
We really appreciate yourexpertise out there and we know
if, whenever we've got anyquestions on anything with seed
treatment, you know you're ourfirst call because you're our
company expert and you know alot about it.
So thanks for taking the timetoday and meeting with me and
Bill, and we really appreciateit, and we'll be bringing you on
for other episodes as weprogress with this Spillin' the
(29:19):
Beans podcast and get moreinformation from you.
So, nick, thanks a lot for yourtime and have a great day.
Yeah, thank you guys, so muchfor having me Anytime Happy to
visit.
Awesome.
Thank you, nick.
Have a great day.
So Bill heard a lot, learned alot about seed treatments today.
Nick knows a lot about seedtreatments today.
What did you garner from ourconversations today with Nick?
(29:41):
That could be that brings somevalue to our listeners and help
maximize some of those yieldswe're looking at out there for
soybeans.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Yeah, no, I think right, wrong or different, to
continue the football analogy.
You know we are kind of reallyin the preseason here and we're
starting to, you know, get ourgame plan put together and you
know we definitely want toinclude seed treatments as one
big component of that.
So I think that's a reallygreat concept to really kind of
continue our little bit offootball analogy here.
So you know, you think about.
(30:10):
You know one thing I hadn'treally thought about was
fusariums everywhere.
I mean it's just you knowthere's all kinds of different
diseases basically in our soilsthat we've got to protect.
You know those young seedlingsagain.
So if you think about that oneor how damaging that one can be,
there's lots of pieces of thatpuzzle there.
And you know you think aboutlayer and all that.
You brought it up.
Layer and all the differentmodes of action.
(30:31):
You know I think together, andespecially the dual bio
fungicides that have all type Dplus, that's kind of cool.
And you add another one inthere, theoretically you could
end up with seven differentmodes of action going against a
lot of these seedling diseases.
So that's pretty cool there aswell.
So you know red crown rot andAlevo.
I mean that's pretty cool toknow that we're looking at that
for a potential solution.
(30:52):
You know, to aid a lot of ourcustomers in that are battling
that.
You know, here, here in our twostates Iowa, nebraska we really
don't have it yet.
I'm sure it's around somewherethat we haven't found it yet.
But you know, definitely in theEast where Nick's at,
definitely they fight it a lotmore.
So you know, I think that'sthat's kind of the main things.
How about you?
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Yeah, you know, really the biggest take-home
point I would have for ourlisteners is, as you said, we're
in the preseason.
To me, seed treatment is one ofthose things that you cannot
skimp on the value that itbrings.
It always has a return oninvestment out there, because
you're always going to havediseases, You're always going to
have insects and pests.
(31:30):
And the other thing to thinkabout too once you plant that
soybean, you cannot go back andput a seed treatment on that
seed.
It's in the ground, it's thereand we know, as we're going
earlier planting.
We know, as we're doing otherthings that we've done with
management practices no-till,strip-till, some of those things
.
Soybeans sometimes stay in theground longer we have adverse
(31:50):
conditions.
It might be ideal when we plantthem.
Then all of a sudden it startsoff cool and wet for about two
or three weeks before they cancome up.
So being able to have that outthere, it's like insurance on
your house.
You never want to have to useit, but it's there and you're
always having that insurance outthere to make sure if something
adverse comes in.
You've got that protection outthere that you can't put on
after it's put in the ground.
So to me it's one of the mosteconomically sound decisions you
(32:12):
can make on trying to achievehigh yield soybeans out there
and get a good return oninvestment.
So, with that being said, Bill,our time's up today, so is
there any further questionsyou'd like to ask before we sign
out to our group today?
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Nope, nope, I think we hit them today.
Usually I have one, but todayI'm going to punt and we'll let
it back to you.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
So sounds hunt and we'll let it put it back to you.
So Sounds good.
Last football analogy we'll gowith.
So thanks again for joining ustoday.
On Spilling the Beans, weinvite you to download the Grow
Smart Live app for moreresources and share this podcast
with other growers.
So for myself and Bill, we wantto say thank you and make it a
great day.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Thanks for joining us on Spilling the Beans, where
every episode gets you one stepcloser to maximizing your
soybean profitability.
If you found today's insightsvaluable, subscribe and leave us
a review on your favoriteplatform.
Download the Grow Smart Liveapp for more resources and share
the podcast with other growers.
See you next week with moreexpert tips to help you grow
(33:07):
smarter and achieve the bestyields yet.
Liberty Outlook, zidua, zidua,pro, poncho, motivo, precise,
endura, rivitec, costax, cs,elevo, vault, ip+, relenia,
dryaxor, liberty Ultra areregistered trademarks of BASF.
Nemosphere, zorina and Voraxorare trademarks of BASF.
Enlist, enlist One, enlist Duoand Enlist E3 are registered
(33:27):
trademarks of Corteva AgritiansLLC.
The transgenic event in EnlistE3 Soybeans is jointly developed
and owned by Corteva AgritiansLLC and MS Technologies LLC.
Chitavo is a registeredtrademark of MS Technologies and
exclusively distributed by BSF.
All other trademarks are theproperty of their respective
owners and use of any suchtrademark does not imply any
affiliation with or endorsementby its owner.
Always read and follow labeldirections Before mixing
(33:48):
components.
Always conduct a compatibilityjar test.
Always consult respectiveproduct labels for specific
mixing instructions.
The most restrictive labelapplies.
Natai Fastax CS is arestricted-use pesticide.
Nemasphere Zorina and Voraxorare not registered and not
available for sale.
This information is providedfor educational purposes only
and is not intended to promotethe sale of this product.
Any sale of this product afterregistration is obtained shall
be based solely on theEPA-approved product label and
(34:09):
any claims regarding productsafety and efficacy shall be
addressed solely by the label.
The views expressed by BASFemployees and guests are their
own and do not necessarilyreflect the views of BASF.
Growsmart is a registeredtrademark of BASF.
Copyright 2025, basfCorporation.
All rights reserved.
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