Biologicals and the Row Crop Conundrum
February 25, 2026 Biologicals have been making inroads into some portions of the agricultural world for several years now. However, a lot of this growth in biologicals usage has come in the specialty crops sector, where smaller acreage numbers tend to favor newer products getting tried. Gaining widespread traction with row crop growers — especially in the Midwest and Midsouth — has been a bit more difficult for the sector to achieve, say market watchers.
“[Due to their markets], row crop growers tend to be very more tied to ‘I can’t take a chance,’ whereas specialty guys … they’re much more willing to take a chance,” says Gregory Rogers, Director of Technical Marketing and Communication at Certis Biologicals. “What we’re doing with growers now is showing them, in a lot of cases, the benefit of including a biological, but not leaning entirely on a biological. A lot of it is just gaining trust.”
Based upon the evidence, this approach seems to be making an impact. In addition, more mainstream ag suppliers such as The Mosaic Co. and WinField United have become involved in biologicals. This has helped increase faith in the category among ag retailers and growers.
Still, there remained many skeptics to using biologicals in row crops during the 2025 growing season, say industry insiders. But the situation is definitely getting better, says Trey Cutts, Vice President of Commercial Agriculture Science at Tidal Grow AgriScience.
“Penetration in Midwest and Midsouth row crops has continued to expand, particularly in corn, soybeans, cotton, and wheat systems, where nutrient efficiency and return-on-investment are closely scrutinized,” says Cutts. “Adoption has improved notably over the past year as more products demonstrate consistent yield and return-on-investment benefits across multi-location and multi-year trials.”
Still Some Hesitancy
But according to Kuide Qin, Chief Science Officer at Verdesian Life Sciences, biologicals still face some challenges in completely winning over row crop growers across the Midwest and Midsouth regions.
“Adoption continues to grow but remains moderate overall,” says Qin.
Greg Sanford, Vice President of Sales, Midwest at Verdesian Life Sciences, agrees that biological sales in row crops has lagged somewhat throughout 2025 and 2026.
“Penetration in row crops — especially corn and soybeans — has absolutely increased over the past year, particularly in the Midwest and Midsouth,” says Sanford. “That said, sales haven’t always tracked perfectly with penetration.”
Verdesian’s Qin remains confident that biologicals will make some positive strides with row crop growers throughout the 2026 growing season. For evidence, he points to several positive developments from 2025 when it comes to using these products in row crop fields.
“We have seen improvements in better education and field demonstration networks, more tailored recommendations by soil type and crop growth stages, and greater willingness to trial as risk decreases,” he says. “[This is] particularly true when these products are positioned as part of a complete fertility or nutrient efficiency program.”
To tie into this anticipated growth, Qin says Verdesian is planning to launch several new biological-oriented products and programs for the upcoming growing season.
“In 2026, Verdesian plans to continue launching new products designed to improve nutrient availability, root development, and crop resilience under stress conditions,” he says. “These solutions include products that combine microbial agents with fermentation-derived metabolites and/or plant extracts to stimulate root growth and enhance abiotic stress tolerance, resulting in multi-mode biofertilizers technologies. The importance of these products lies in delivering more predictable performance across diverse soil and environmental conditions.”
Kip Jacobs, Field Solutions Agronomist at The Mosaic Co., concurs with this view. Many in the agricultural world still view these biologicals as “magic elixirs that overpromise and underdeliver,” he says, so companies need to make their products stand out through solid research and development data.
“So, at Mosaic, we really try to differentiate ourselves in that point when we’re very specific in terms of our biologicals,” says Jacobs. “Everything that we do in terms of biologicals is focusing on return-on-fertilizer-investment and really directly influencing the nutrient use efficiency.”
Subscribe Today For
