“There is a very big confluence of on one hand, governments and companies pushing for sustainable practices in agriculture, and then being able to offer the opportunities to farmers to be more engaged in the opportunity (of carbon smart farming) … We basically go to farmers with two things: helping them to improve their soil health and the productivity of their land, and then the carbon credits are a cherry on top. We believe these practices are the best practices that farmers can do, and now we’re able with the support of carbon markets to incentivize them more to be able to empower them to do this.” – Elliot Formal, CEO of Agoro Carbon Alliance

At BASF’s annual Behind the Science event, the company shared the decade-long process to develop and bring to market an innovative solid encapsulation, to be used in its new herbicide, Surtain, set to launch in 2024. “With weeds evolving to be resistant to 21 of the 31 known herbicide sites of action, this type of innovation is needed to help growers fight those resistant weeds and preserve the technologies available to them today – building a bridge to novel artificial intelligence in the future,” said Scott Kay, Vice President, U.S. Agricultural Solutions, BASF. Photo: BASF

“Growers are farming their ground year after year and they will take a soil test and see that they’re up high in phosphorus levels. But yet, they’ll see a purple tint to their corn and they’ll try to combat that with starter fertilizers and other things. But what Utrisha P is doing is taking a different approach to helping that crop manage phosphorus by actually breaking that soil-bound phosphorus apart to make it available.” – Brandon Emery, U.S. Product Manager for Biologicals, Corteva Agriscience

“We take a three-pronged approach: we balance science, agronomy, and data … It’s really important to have that real-life data with year-over-year results to understand how the product works. When we look at the newcomers into the biological space, they don’t always have the three legs of the stool holding their products up. It’s often looked at as a panacea – use this on every acre and you’re off to the promised land. There is a lot of over-promising and under-delivering and biologicals get tarred with that brush. There is a lot of buyer-beware, a lot of new companies, but we’ve been around in the inoculant business for over 100 years. I think that’s why we have a really good name in the industry.” – Jon Treloar, Senior Technical Agronomist, Novozymes BioAg in Saskatoon, Sask., on standing out in the crowded biologicals space

“Can we get a legitimate carbon measure, and not an estimation like so many people do? The answer is yes. With our sensor suite, we can go across the field, we can measure the content of carbon in the soil, give you a real number on your carbon content, and then you can do whatever practice you think is best between you and your trusted advisor … We believe that as we continue to see the carbon markets mature, that this knowledge – having real carbon numbers associated with your field – is going to be valuable to farmers, and being able to legitimately and actively say, we’ve increased carbon to this many tons per acre, is going to have a real value in the marketplace.” – Todd Martin, Chief Commercial Officer, Co-Founder, EarthOptics

Growers who stopped by the Nufarm booth learned about Nufarm’s $40 million capital investments in U.S. crop protection manufacturing optimizations. More than ever, growers need to maximize the results of their weed management program. Those attending the show were especially interested in hearing about Nufarm’s “XHL Innovation” crop protection platform that will bring forward new herbicide formulations developed to improve both weed management sustainability and efficiency. Many growers also discussed the opportunity to achieve better nematode management with seed-applied Trunemco.

Many growers stopped by the Nuseed booth to see their proven portfolio of sunflower, canola, sorghum and carinata seeds. Southern growers were especially interested in the U.S. market launch of a contracting program to grow carinata as a winter-grown secondary crop that has all the benefits of a cover crop. Grown between main crop rotations, carinata growers will see many benefits, including weed management, reduction of wind/water erosion, soil health improvement, off-season pollinator food source and reduction in nematode population in addition to the opportunity for profits obtained through grain yield. The certified sustainable, renewable oil feedstock replaces fossil fuels for airlines to help mitigate climate change.