“As planting dates continue to get pushed earlier, seed treatments help give crops the strong start they need.”
Before a seed is planted, growers face many decisions that impact a crop’s success and failure—variety selection, herbicide and fertility programs and grain marketing, to name a few. One decision often overlooked is seed treatment, which is a cost-effective way to protect crops from pests and diseases for increased yields and improved plant health.
Seed treatments fall under major categories of disease and pest control, biologicals, and seed finisher or lubricant. For diseases and pests, the focus is on fungicide and insecticide treatments. While seed corn is nearly always treated with both fungicide and insecticide upstream, there are many downstream options and combinations when it comes to soybeans. Some use fungicide and insecticide both, others use only fungicide, and others do not use any at all.
Unfortunately, under adverse conditions, problems can still arise, causing rot or blight or even unseen yield drag. For instance, when planting soybeans from March to April or earlier, it is crucial to protect the seed. The weather can change rapidly from one day to the next, and the fluctuation in moisture and temperature can keep a soybean from emerging for longer than 10 days, leaving the seed susceptible to failure. A prolonged period of emergence can lead to insect feeding and seed rot, which cannot be reversed by a foliar application. Only a seed treatment can control seed-feeding insects such as wireworms and bean leaf beetles before emergence.
Additionally, a seed treatment is the only way to address fungal pathogens that cause early-season problems such as blight, damping off, seed and seedling rot. While fungicide seed treatments are not bullet-proof solutions and do not provide season-long control, they do provide the greatest chance for crop establishment.
A less-common category is nematicide, which can provide protection from pests such as root-knot nematode and soybean cyst nematode (SCN). Varietal resistant traits such as PI88788 or Peking can provide some control, but current University of Missouri research shows that best results come from using both a resistant variety and a nematicide seed treatment.
There are also seed treatments that enhance yield, vigor and seed placement. This category includes an exhaustive list of products for both corn and soybeans.
For the 2025 season, MFA is introducing a new line of soybean seed treatments: Gold Advantage Micro, Gold Advantage Rhizo and Gold Advantage Boost. These products, which have been tested in MFA’s own research trials, are designed to unlock more available nitrogen, boost yields and feed plants for top performance.
All of these products include a lipo-chitooligosaccharides (LCO) signal for earlier, more productive and longer-lasting nodule production. The LCO jumpstarts microbial relationships in the soil with the plant to improve nutrient availability and uptake. In addition, Gold Advantage Micro contains essential micronutrients and a soybean flow aid, while Gold Advantage Rhizo includes advanced strains of Bradyrhizobia bacteria as an inoculant. Gold Advantage Boost is our top-tier product, combining all the features of Micro and Rhizo for a complete package that covers any soybean needs to start the season.
“As planting dates continue to get pushed earlier, seed treatments help give crops the strong start they need.”
Some growers may lean toward Gold Advantage Rhizo or Micro given cost. One instance in which the Rhizo treatment would be a good choice is a field of continuous corn that is going back to soybeans. On the other hand, the Micro product may be suited to fields in rotation or in continuous soybean, where the crop has exhibited good nodulation year over year.
Corn seed treatments are also part of our agronomic trials. After this past year’s research, we are adding a new combination of LALRise® Shine and BellaTrove® Companion® Maxx ST to the MorCorn lineup. LALRise Shine contains Bacillus velezensis to improve plant root vigor and nutrient availability, especially phosphorus uptake. BellaTrove Companion Maxx ST contains Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, a strain of bacteria classified as a biofungicide. This treatment coats the root and protects against diseases such as rhizoctonia, pythium and fusarium. While only select MorCorn hybrids will be treated with these products in 2025, the entire line will have them in the future.
As planting dates continue to get pushed earlier, quality seed treatments help give crops the strong start they need. Reach out to your local MFA solutions provider to ask about availability for these soybean and corn treatment options.
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