In the new Purdue Crop Chat podcast specialists highlight the outstanding year for Indiana corn and soybean crops. Jim Shertzer, head of NK Seeds marketing agrees with the 2020 harvest assessments.
“I think everyone is feeling really good coming out of 2020 with harvest and what we’re seeing from a market perspective, so there’s a lot to be thankful for and a lot of excitement looking forward to 2021,” he said.
Shertzer said the main ingredient for success in those NK Seeds corn fields comes from a doubling down on research efforts the last couple of years.
“We’re starting to see the results of that,” he explained. “Forty-five percent of our portfolio was either a first- or second-year product, so we’ve really almost flipped the portfolio and have a lot of new and exciting genetics. An example of one that a lot of people are talking about in Indiana is NK1082, and in Indiana this year against Pioneer it was almost 12 bushels better across 45 different trials in Indiana.”
In 2020 when growers were deliberating between different soybean herbicide platforms, NK had a range of trait options to help with those decisions.
“We’ve always been known for our leading genetics in soybeans, but we coupled that with trait choice this year, and so we had Enlist E3 and Xtend varieties in the marketplace which allowed farmers a choice on a platform to manage weeds, but then had the confidence in the genetics behind it with our NK genetics.”
He told HAT the great 2020 may not mean you make the exact same seed choices for next year. NK recommends you go through the same process each year, looking at all the data and securing expert recommendations. Additionally, NK reps and retailers offer the Cropwise Seed Selector tool to help determine the best products for your soil types.