Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
October 13, 2010

Getting a crop off to a fast start that is sustained throughout the growing season is important in every farming operation, but it’s absolutely essential when the goal is a new world record. And that’s why Kip Cullers included Optimize 400 with LCO Promoter Technology in his growing regimen that resulted in yet another record-setting soybean yield.

Cullers, from Purdy, Missouri, recently established a new record yield, confirmed by the new 100 Bushel Club, at 160.6 bushels per acre. This mark tops Cullers’ previous world record of 154.57 bushels per acre established in 2007, and is now the third world-record yield the innovative grower has achieved. In every instance Cullers used Optimize 400, from EMD Crop Bioscience, or a previous formulation of Optimize to ensure a fast start and season-long vigor for his soybeans. Cullers also used an experimental foliar-applied crop growth-enhancement product from EMD to attain his new record yield

Optimize 400 is a seed-applied product that contains LCO (Lipo-chitooligosaccharide) Promoter Technology, a naturally occurring molecule that enhances root and shoot development, nodulation and nitrogen fixation immediately and independently of the environment and soil conditions. The product also includes an elite Bradyrhizobium japonicum inoculant for improved nitrogen fixation throughout the growing season.

“If you’re going to have a good soybean crop, what takes place under the ground is probably more important than what happens above the soil’s surface,” Cullers says. “A soybean plant takes up 80 to 90 percent of its nutrients in the top four inches of the soil profile. The more feeder roots you put in that soil profile, the more nutrients your plants take up, and that ultimately results in more yield.”

“I’ve used Optimize for several years, and I think it’s the best product of its kind on the market,” he adds. “I’ve found from digging up plants about 21 days after planting,

Published: October 14, 2010