The days of planting more seed as a way of buffering problems with stand establishment and plant survival are fading away. 

Growers are taking things to a new level with precision stand establishment, where it’s all about fine-tuning your planting rate to hit a target population.  

So, if every individual seed you’re putting in the ground counts towards your target stand, you can’t afford to be losing plants right off the hop to insects and disease.

This is where having a soybean seed treatment in place becomes more critical than ever, explains Brett Graham, Syngenta Seedcare Specialist. 

“A lot of the work you might be doing with precision planting to maximize your ROI per acre goes out the window if you get a poor stand,” he says. “Yes, soybeans can compensate to a certain extent and fill in, but if you’re losing 20 or 30 per cent of your plants to start – that yield potential has already taken a big hit.” 

Seed treatments are game changers

Fungicide and insecticide seed treatments can play a major role in helping growers achieve a stronger stand. 

“Anything you can do to help those plants emerge on the same day – or in as tight of a window as possible – is going to lead to a better performing crop in the end,” says Graham. 

As planting dates get pushed earlier in a bid for more nodes and yield, seed is going to be put in under colder-weather and soil. Tough environmental conditions along with seed and soil-borne diseases can all work against your crop getting properly established. 

“Diseases like Rhizoctonia or Fusarium won’t always kill plants outright, but they can slow that plant’s development,” says Graham. “Soybeans are also really susceptible to cold shock if you get low temperatures and heavy rain right after planting.” 

So, what’s the consequence of uneven emergence? Studies have shown that when strong plants are intermixed with smaller, late-emerging plants, the weak plants actually end up drawing on the strong plants rather than contributing to overall yield. 

Seed treatments lead to stronger and more uniform emergence

“When that crop is protected with a seed treatment, what you’re going to see is a more uniform stand and better emergence because seedlings aren’t being held back by disease,” says Graham. “With systemic seed treatments, they’re actually going to move into new growth for above and below ground protection.” 

He adds that when you look an insect pest like soybean aphids, seed treatments will help keep early season populations down below threshold levels and reduce the likelihood of needing a follow-up foliar spray. 

But where the value of a seed treatment comes back to is added confidence, says Graham. 
“You’re seeing growers that know the type of yield they can get out of their field and the plant populations that will get them there,” he says. “What seed treatments can do is provide that first line of defense, so growers don’t need to plant extra seed to reliably hit their population targets.” 

Syngenta offers a variety of seed care options. Check out these soybean seed treatment products to find a fit for your farm.