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Maximize on-farm ROI with biologicals
From plant vigour to yield performance, biologicals are helping Canadian canola, cereals and soybean farmers get more from every acre. Explore five strategies to ensure your investment pays off.
For Canadian farmers, success isn’t measured by just one factor – it’s a combination of the number of bushels, strong bottom-line results and the deep satisfaction that comes from harvesting a healthy, productive crop.
Today, there are more resources than ever to help farmers achieve their yield goals and maximize their return on investment (ROI), including biologicals.
Biologicals offer farmers powerful tools to manage abiotic stress and environmental pressures, providing smarter solutions to growing challenges in the field.
The solutions that biologicals provide don’t just impact yield, they ultimately optimize plant productivity, improving a farmer’s return on investment by enhancing plant vigour, plant and fruit biomass, plant architecture (like root and shoot development) and can improve harvest intervals. Each of the benefits biologicals provide is dependent on individual crop needs and plays a direct role in maximizing ROI.
Improve your ROI with smart biological strategies
Interested in enhancing yield results and improving your ROI on biological solutions? Here are five tips to follow.
1. Ask questions
Before trying a biological product, be sure to ask yourself (and your crop advisor) three key questions:
1. What do I need, or what problem do I need to solve?
2. Why am I using this product?
3. When should I use it?
Answering these questions will help you understand the challenge you are trying to manage and set expectations for the outcome. When asking questions, consider what type of environmental stress or weather incident is impacting crop development and yield, which product will address the issue and how you can be prescriptive with the application to maximize the product benefits. Farmers should work with an agronomist or retailer to answer these questions and determine the right approach for success.
2. Start small
Identifying the purpose of the application and knowing what to expect by using the appropriate product and timing are the first steps to success using biologicals. Consider applying biological solutions on a small field or conduct your own trial. This way the results can be measured and compared to surrounding acres and inform future biological investments for your acres.
3. Establish clear expectations
Don’t wait until harvest to measure your results in bushels. If the product is meant to support plant growth, improve vigour or enhance root and shoot production, then check to make sure it is. Scout crops in season, when the product should be showing results. For example, Fortified Stimulate™ Yield Enhancer is strategically formulated to ignite robust plant growth and optimize yield. When applied at the right time and where it’s needed most, farmers should see bigger roots and shoots, so don’t be afraid to dig up plants to check root biomass and compare crop development to untreated fields. Of course, the ultimate ROI will be measured by yield results, but the impact of many biological solutions can also be seen throughout the growing season.
4. Know your numbers
A 3:1 ratio is widely recognized as an industry benchmark for a biological product investment that growers can aim for. The best results will come from using the product prescriptively, like applying a product in the right place at the right time. For example, boron – a key micronutrient in canola, particularly during flowering – can be applied as a foliar application to maintain adequate boron levels in the crop. If the crop is deficient in boron, applying a biologicals solution like Sugar Mover Premier at the right time (tank-mixed with a fungicide during flowering), a grower could realize a yield boost and enhance their ROI.. If the crop has adequate boron, the investment serves more as a precautionary measure to safeguard the crop’s boron levels.
Learn from your experience
There’s nothing more frustrating than a bad experience, or poor results when trying a new product. If a product didn’t perform quite the way you anticipated, be sure to ask questions. Review your expected outcome, in-season scouting results and year-end yields. Ask questions like, what was the challenge? Was the application timing correct? Did I check in-season developments? What was I expecting?
A great example of varying experiences occurred in Manitoba during the hot, dry summer of 2023. The biostimulant, X-Cyte was applied to canola during flowering and ahead of an expected heat blast event in an effort to help the crop manage the environmental stressor. This strategic, or proactive timing was intended to help the crop overcome stress during a critical stage, and the results paid off. The crop yielded nearly seven bushels more when compared to untreated side. However, that same year, another canola field in a different region of Manitoba was also treated with X-Cyte. This area did not experience the same “heat blasting” conditions, and as a result, the yield response and ROI were minimal, likely because the product was not required, and the application timing was not optimal.
Results may vary when trying biological solutions for the first time. That’s why it’s important to work with a trusted crop advisor to help guide decisions about product selection, timing and expected results.
For more information about biological crop solutions, visit The Potential of Biologicals. Or connect with a Biologicals Innovation Manager to learn more.
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