Producing a successful crop has turned into a game of chess. You make your best move and then have to react to what the growing season throws at you. Simply planning and planting won’t get you through to a winning harvest.
Jerome Kline, a western Iowa corn and soybean farmer, knows every move matters. Precise management and strategic in-season adjustments are helping him knock down challenges as they come.
“Every season, we start out with high yield on our brains,” Kline says. “We’re shooting for perfect emergence. We adjust throughout the season.”
Helping Kline adjust is James Klein, sales agronomist at Farm Service Cooperative (FSC). He works with Kline to place the best-fitting products on every acre. Klein first helped Kline out by recommending and selling fertilizer. As years passed, he gradually came to support the operation with all seed and crop protection recommendations. Klein also helps navigate key management choices throughout the season.
Klein sees a willingness to try new things in his customer: “Jerome is really pushing the envelope. From emergence all the way to harvest, a lot of the things he does are different from the industry standard. He’s very proactive.”
When they began planning for 2026, they decided high yield would be the ultimate goal. After reviewing the available technologies and new genetics, Kline decided to plant all soybeans acres to Brevant® brand Enlist E3® soybeans. He also planted both Brevant® brand PowerCore® Enlist® corn and Vorceed® Enlist® corn.
Klein is a proponent of Brevant® brand products because of their genetic improvements and response to high management practices. In his words, Brevant® brand corn and soybean products are “on a linear path for yield” and are helping his customers succeed year after year.
John Long, retail sales agronomist for Brevant® seeds, works with Klein to find the best products for customers in Klein’s area. Their partnership gives farmers the chance to try something different in pursuit of next-level yield.
“Working with agronomists and farmers like James and Jerome is a lot of fun,” Long says. “We put products to the test and help farmers maximize their yield and profit potential by taking some of these new technologies to their acres.”
The trio’s opening moves were tested early in the 2026 season, as was Kline’s ability to react. A late-April hailstorm caused compaction and other issues threatening corn emergence. Kline says such seasonal challenges often require him to adjust. His first step is to consult Klein.
“I like to get his take on it,” Kline says. “After that April storm, I planned on Y-dropping on my corn acres to throw some nitrogen out there.”
A sidedress Y-drop application feeds corn more nitrogen at a critical growth point. The targeted placement increases efficiency. Kline is ready to make similar decisions as the growing season evolves.
“You may end up putting more resources into one field than the other,” Klein says. “You may have to change expectations and manage appropriately to chase that yield goal.”
Throughout the season, Kline’s team anticipates staying flexible to management weed and disease attacks. If they make all the right moves, they can checkmate all the challenges that Mother Nature deals them. This season’s chess match has begun.
Follow Kline and Klein as they make key choices throughout the growing season.
For more information, visit Brevant.com/SoilToSilo.
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