Triple V, Inc., of Roanoke, Illinois, not only received second place honors in the 2017 Illinois Soybean Association Side-by-Side Contest, the farm also gained a 5.6-bushel per acre yield advantage with their soybean field trial plot.
The plot Dan Vogel and his cousins, Curt and Steve Vogel entered in the contest was a field trial for new Delaro fungicide from Bayer. Vogel said in the past he hadn’t seen much of a yield increase using fungicide on soybeans. However, the third generation farm likes to try new products, so the cousins agreed to a trial. The results of the trial, and the Illinois Soybean Association yield challenge, surprised Triple V in a season of unexpected outcomes.
“We participated in the trial because we like to try new things and new products,” said Vogel. “When we found out we won the Side-by-Side Contest, we were definitely surprised and excited.”
Vogel adds that the farm was pleased with the yield increase they saw with Delaro, which they compared to an untreated check. The season started out wet and cold for Triple V, but the farm experienced dry periods throughout the season that had the growers concerned about yields.
“We weren’t optimistic about our yields until we started harvesting, and then we couldn’t believe it,” said Vogel. “The five-to-six bushel per acre yield increase we saw with Delaro will offset the cost of application. I already have some Delaro booked for this season, just because of the field trial experience last year.”
Eric Ifft, a Bayer customer business advisor in Illinois, said Triple V, Inc. likely saw an increase in yield because of the improved plant health Delaro provides.
“Even when there is not high disease activity, Delaro allows plants to better use resources like water,” Ifft said. “That helps the plant better withstand environmental stresses, such as dry weather. If conditions are right for disease, Delaro also has broad-spectrum control. This provides preventive and curative protection from the worst yield-robbing diseases like frogeye leafspot and brown spot while also suppressing white mold.”
Across two years of grower field trials, like the one the Vogels participated in, Delaro has seen a four-to-five bushel per acre increase in soybeans on average, and 12-to-18 bushel per acre increase in corn on average. In these trials, across 20 states, Delaro had a 90 percent win rate over the untreated check.
