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Growers select the best varieties
for their region. Cultural practices, soil management,
weed and insect controls and
seed treatments are finely tuned to their best abilities.
Yet soybean yields continue to rise and fall like a roller
coaster from year to year and region to region. StollerUSA
and the U.S. Ag Associates, a group of consultants with
active members from Canada to South America, have directed
their energies for more than sixteen years to learn about
the factors limiting the genetic expression of the soybean
plant. Much of this work grew out of the frustration over
the inconsistent results of their fertilizer programs. Breeders
knew the plants’ genetics were capable of a much higher
yield. With this knowledge in hand, StollerUSA and the U.S.
Ag Associates came together to gain a better understanding
of the effects of stress from weather extremes, other conditions
and how positive impacts could be encouraged and negative
factors minimized. This group has worked in unison to develop
chemistry and technology to enhance the quality and size
of yields.
As field knowledge and university data is collected
and evaluated, StollerUSA establishes additional university
studies to lend
credibility to the work of the group. For years producers
have related weather variables and crop stress to the outcome
during harvest. The Chicago Board of Trade makes this statement: “The
weather factor is not only an issue for the current crop
year which is to be planted, but also the previous year from
which the seed was harvested,” basically stating that
the genetics within seeds remain consistent while the expression
varies.
The development of products and practices that assist
the plant to reasonably tolerate stress while encouraging
desired
physical characteristics by means of the improved genetic
expression has been a major undertaking of StollerUSA and
the U.S. Ag Associates. |
