The need for speed: Beck’s shares Practical Farm Research data

ATLANTA, Ind. — Each year, Beck’s Hybrids releases Practical Farm Research results in an effort to provide helpful data to farmers.

“The PFR program was started back in the 1960s by Sonny Beck,” said Jim Schwartz, director of PFR at Beck’s Hybrids.

“The genesis of it is that, as funding for land-grant universities continued to decline, he felt like someone needed to fill the gap and provide unbiased research on agronomic products and practices — to help generate data to help farmers succeed.”

The PFR team tests products ranging from fungicides to tillage systems. The data is shared in a PFR book and is distributed to tens of thousands of farmers.

High-speed planting was a main research topic in 2019.

“The crunch to get things planted was very limited last spring,” Schwartz said. “One of the technologies we did a lot of research on was on Speed Tubes from Precision Planting.

“In essence, it allows them to plant faster. Instead of planting 5 miles per hour, maybe they can plant 8 miles per hour. What we learned this year is that basically, yields were the same (at multiple speeds).

“The new normal for weather is probably abnormal. If we continue to have these rainfalls, and planting windows are narrower, it makes sense to think about these high speed planting options.”

Practical Farm Research also focused on closing wheels in high-speed planting, Schwartz said.

“The faster you go, the more bounce you’re going to get,” he explained. “These closing wheels are important.

“One of the things we learned is that you must have row-to-row hydraulic downforce control on your planter in order to plant at high speeds.”

If a product or technique is studied for a minimum of three years and leads to positive yield gains and return on investments, it’s stamped as PFR-proven.

“In other words, these are things we think you should look at or try on your farm,” Schwartz said.

He shared the top five PFR proven strategies for corn and soybeans. The PFR book goes into detail about each topic.

Top considerations for corn:

1. Planting date.

2. Closing wheels.

3. Starter on both sides.

4. Sidedress nitrogen.

5. Fungicides and timing.

Top considerations for soybeans:

1. Fungicides at R3.

2. Planting dates.

3. Seed treatments.

4. Row width.

5. Seeding rates.

To view the complete PFR report, visit www.beckshybrids.com/pfresearch/.