Beck’s Hybrids held their annual Becknology Days over the weekend and had record attendance on days 1 and 2. Always on display at Becknology Days is their PFR- Practical Farm Research.
This year, Beck’s Director of Research, Agronomy, and PFR, Jim Schwartz, showed us their Root Reveal™ Research that’s working to classify the root structure and volume of each of their corn hybrids.
“If I could understand how root architecture might impact three things- populations, stress tolerance, and then my nitrogen placement- could I derisk some of this for the farmer? In other words, we’ve had so many times over the years where we’ll sell a hybrid to a farmer and it doesn’t work. We’re like, ‘Well, why didn’t it work? What happened?’ And we believe we might learn a little bit more from the architecture, studying the architecture, of the plant and its roots.”
Schwartz says that studies from the University of Illinois have shown that root volume impacts corn yield by as much as 50 bushels per acre depending on the soil fertility systems. Penn State University has done a lot of research in this area as well.
“They believe that more vertical roots will perform better in stressful environments, low-moisture environments, and maybe even low-nitrogen environments, and our data tends to support that. So, if I’m under moisture stress, and the architecture of my hybrid is such that it grows more horizontally across the top of the soil, it’s not following the moisture line as it moves down through the soil as well as a vertically rooted hybrid. And so yeah, we believe that understanding how the hybrids are growing underground could unlock some of the mysteries that we’ve not really understood up to this point.”
Schwartz emphasizes that there are no bad roots. The roots just need to match your farm and your farming practices. Watch the video of the Root Reveal below captured over the weekend from Becknology Days and also listen to the full interview with Schwartz.
