5 Reasons to Use Soybean Seed Treatment

Seed performance is at the heart of your farm’s success. All growers want to end the season in the best possible position they can yield-wise, and the only way to do that is to get the plant off to a great start through seed treatment.
 
“Many might be looking for ways to reduce input costs for their 2018 crops, but things such as opting not to use a soybean seed treatment are ways to cut costs that come with their own risk,” said Kent Nichols, MKC agronomy field sales manager and seed manager. “In the end, seed treatment is an important investment no matter what the grain prices are.”
 
Here are some reasons to consider using seed treatments:

1. Farm has a history of replanting. No question — use fungicide seed treatments. Even at the older estimates of replanting associated costs, one replant will pay for more than 10 years of a seed treatment.
2. Field is slow to drain after heavy rains. More often than not, seed treatments will protect and have added yield benefits compared to non-treated seed. All of the soil-borne pathogens that can infect soybeans require high moisture. If a field is slow to drain or has areas that are prone to pooling water, the time the field is saturated is much longer resulting in more seeds/seedlings becoming infected when those heavy rains occur.
3. Reduce seeding rates. This is another place where seed treatments are beginning to play a larger role. With reduced seeding rates, every seed becomes important and seed treatments can have a large contribution to maintaining early plant populations. In some of our seed treatment studies, the treated seed is emerging at greater than 90% of the seed we planted compared to non-treated seed, which may be less than 50%.
4. Soil-borne plant pathogens often cause early season damping-off. Numerous studies show if a grower is totally dependent on the partial resistance portion of the resistance package, seed treatments are needed to protect the plants until they are up and out of the ground. 
5. Early planting and very cool temperatures. The cooler the spring, the longer the seed/seedling will sit belowground, giving these soil-borne pathogens more time to feed. For those first fields, seed treatments can provide the protection, especially when it takes 2-3 weeks for them to emerge.