Source: Agronomy Update, Mycogen Seeds

When growers choose elite germplasm containing the oil, herbicide and performance traits that will do the best job for their particular farming operation, all of that planning and investment can be lost if protection is not used to defend that investment.

Problems associated with insects, diseases and poor weather are common, but many of these yield threats cannot be combated with strong genetics alone. Therefore, seed treatments are one way to help growers protect their seed investment and help their crop reach more of its genetic potential.

Growers only get one chance to plant in the spring to get a high level of potential success. Not using a premium seed treatment will decrease the level of success and, in some cases, eliminate the chance for a successful crop altogether. Seed treatments in sunflowers can result in better stands and yields.

Growers still considering purchasing sunflower seed this year should strongly consider a seed treatment such as Cruiser® DM Pak. It offers protection against wireworm, sunflower beetle and flea beetle, with the added protection of Dynasty®, Apron XL® and Maxim® 4FS seed treatment fungicides, which provide protection against pythium, rhizoctonia, fusarium, damping-off and seedling blight. In addition, Dynasty offers suppression of downy mildew, a yield-robbing fungus likely to be a concern again this season.

Multiyear testing has shown that sunflowers treated with Cruiser DM Pak will produce better, more uniform stands and produce more pounds of seed per acre than untreated sunflowers.

Cruiser DM Pak has shown a yield increase in 16 of 21 side-by-side comparisons. Average advantage of Cruiser DM Pak in sunflowers over a wide geography shows a 159-pound advantage or about a $13-per-acre advantage in seed treated with Cruiser DM Pak when sunflowers are valued at $12/cwt.

As shown above, Cruiser DM Pak is not a guarantee to higher yields. Like so many other protection products, Cruiser DM Pak is a form of insurance against potential problems that could impact your production. There is not a proven method to detect many of the problems that may be encountered in a given field prior to planting. The reason we use products like Cruiser DM Pak is because, over time, we have learned that many fields do harbor pests that negatively affect how a crop will perform. If these pests are present, Cruiser DM Pak will help in controlling the amount of damage they cause. If fewer of these pests were in the field, then products like Cruiser DM Pak would have little noticeable effect on performance. In our test over a span of two years, a favorable response to Cruiser DM Pak occurred about 75 percent of the time. Over an extended period of time, a substantial payback for using Cruiser DM Pak can b e expected.

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®Cruiser, Dynasty, Apron XL and Maxim are registered trademarks of Syngenta Crop Protection, Inc.
©2006 Mycogen Seeds. Mycogen Seeds is an affiliate of Dow AgroSciences LLC.