American Ag Network and FARM’s Corryn La Rue talked with Kim Tutor of BASF during the 2024 NAFB Convention and Trade Talk.
Q: We’re at the 2024 NAFB Trade Talk Show. I’ve got Kim Tutor with me from BASF. What have you seen in 2024?
So 2024 has been an interesting year. In terms of disease, when we’re thinking about corn, we had tar spot, which is really top of mind for a lot of growers. It came in earlier than it ever has before. They identified it back in May down in Kansas. The other corn disease was southern rust. Normally that just blows in from the South.
Sometimes it makes its way up to the Midwest, but it’s usually later in the season. We saw it go all the way to Minnesota. So, you know, a little bit of an abnormal year there. In terms of soybeans, I would say kind of in that upper Midwest, we did have some pockets of white mold. There’s a little bit of Cercospora that showed up.
But we had a pretty dry July and August, so not a ton of disease pressure there. But then I think about wheat right in the Great Plains, and there was a good bit of disease pressure there with that dawn vomitoxin and battling that Fusarium head blight. But BASF is very excited with our product lineup that we have to offer. That’s going to be Veltyma fungicide on corn to help combat tar spot, as well as those other troublesome corn diseases like southern rust, grey leaf spot, et cetera. And then for soybeans, we have our Revytek fungicide.
Now, if you’re battling white mold, our lead recommendation there is going to be Endura. And then last but not least, in terms of wheat, in that battle against fusarium head blight, our lead recommendation there is going to be spare expungicide. And so in terms of what growers saw and experienced this year, I know a lot of folks were probably questioning, you know, margins are tight. Do we really need to make this fungicide application? And I think the resounding answer is yes.
A lot of growers are seeing and experiencing that there are other benefits outside of fungicides from BASF besides disease control. So our brands have the longest lasting residual on the market today. They are formulated with active ingredients that are going to provide additional benefits outside of disease control, whether that be optimizing their growth efficiency, making roots bigger, helping keep that plant photosynthesizing, but also mitigating environmental stress. You know, that old adage, the only two things in life that are certain are death and taxes. I think the other thing that’s certain is stress.
Our Crops are going to battle stress every year. Nobody has a crystal ball. We don’t exactly know what it’s going to be. But in those areas in the Midwest where it did get kind of hot in that July, August timeframe, in particular with soybean growers, I think they really saw that added benefit and added yield protection of a BASF fungicide like Revytek or on corn for Veltyma. And so again, when I think folks are thinking about 2025, I hope the one word that comes to mind when they’re making a fungicide product selection and hopefully one from BASF is consistency.
That’s what you get with our BASF fungicides. That consistent performance year in and year out across geographies, across varying environmental conditions, across different soil types, consistency year in and year out. And you’ll hopefully see that good performance, that great local performance in your backyard.
Q: And I think a lot of producers are looking at theirs right now in 2024 and scratching their heads a little concerned about next year, 2025, you know, what’s coming down the pipeline and what is BASF able to do this next year to support producers?
I would say the thing that we’re most excited about is that BASF has locked in 0% financing on our crop protection and seed treatment products through the middle of March.
So would encourage everybody to reach out to their locally authorized BASF retailer or their local BASF representative, take advantage of that 0% financing, especially compared to what other rates, interest rates are doing in the market right now. That’s an incredible opportunity. Lock that in now. And again, I would say looking to 2025, have a plan, start having those conversations now. You know, don’t get behind because unfortunately a lot of these diseases because they can have longer latent periods, especially like with a troublesome disease like tar spot and corn, you can’t take that wait and see approach.
It pays to be proactive instead of reactive. So if they want to see local performance in their backyard, they can look at our large scale demonstration trials. We’ve got data online@revxfields.com they can zoom into the county, see how our products perform in their neck of the woods.
Q: Anything else you want to include before we conclude our interview?
Yeah, I would say again, reach out, take a look at revxfields.com if they have any additional questions.
