What’s new? Does it pencil out?

As farmers plan for next season, most compare new seed varieties, trait packages and crop protection options to their current programs.

“When we look at new products, we want to see data and cost,” says Jenny Mennenga, who farms near LeRoy, Ill. “We need to understand where data come from, if advantages are significant, and if we will get back product costs in either yield or value. A yield change of just one or two bushels doesn’t even show up on yield maps.”

Farmers traditionally have had a variety of third-party data, including university research, to answer their questions about product performance. But changes in agriculture, such as the development of biotechnology and low use-rate chemistries by major companies, have altered the research pathway to new products, requiring agribusiness, university researchers and farmers to all look beyond the usual channels of information to gather data.

Read more from page 6 of the Illinois Field & Bean here.