With another harvest season — and year — almost in the books, corn and soybean farmers are already looking ahead to a promising 2022 growing season. But before we close the books on 2021, we wanted to look back, one more time, on the reasons NK is now the fastest-growing seed brand. See what farmers and NK Seeds representatives had to say about their NK products, across the country and all season long.
We talked with Keith Waters, a Beaufort County, North Carolina farmer, about his recent experiences with NK® hybrids. “A few years ago, I think there was a perception that NK Seeds hybrids were in decline,” he said. “In recent years, however, I think farmers are looking at today’s NK Seeds hybrids featuring top-performing genetics and new technology. The best thing that NK Seeds did in our area was to have a corn plot on our farm. A lot of people were impressed with the performance of NK1677 and NK1748 in the plot. Those field signs carried interest a long way. People from other counties would call and ask if they could go in that test plot and walk the rows.”
Sam Beauchamp, who farms corn, cotton and sorghum in the Texas panhandle, told us he has been planting NK hybrids for decades. “Not everything works well in our area, but today’s NK offers some superior products,” he said. “We have a handful of products that work very well and we’ve stuck with them. We’re well positioned for the season ahead.”
800 miles north, in northeast Iowa, Marc Mummelthei was waiting out a cold snap when we spoke with him in April. He shared why he’s grown NK products for 30+ years and been a dealer for 28.
“I think NK has always had a strong soybean lineup, backed by proprietary genetics,” he said. “We’re in a maturity zone where a 2 or an early 2 bean is very popular, and they’ve always provided nice options for us in that maturity.” Mummelthei was also looking forward to planting two new XtendFlex® varieties, NK21-H4XF and NK25-C9XF.
NK Seeds sales representative, Brian Catlett, had high hopes for the rest of the season, despite getting off to a wet start in central Arkansas. “Farmers are seeing the importance of the NK corn breeding and nurturing we’re doing specifically for the South. We’ve made that investment in our customers, and all farmers, to provide them with southern-grown genetics for southern hybrids and varieties.”
With combining delayed due to a rainy season, NK Seeds sales representative, JP Bowlin, said several products were looking good despite a challenging year. “NK1677 is one product that’s doing a lot for us this season,” he shared. “It was planted on some large-scale acres and everybody I know who planted it had a good experience with it and plans to plant more next year.”
Bowlin also named some star soybean performers. “S49-F5X has been one of our biggest sellers the past couple of years, and S44-C7X has gained massive numbers of acres and shown positive results as well. The soybeans just fit so many acres.”
Iowa farmer, Steven Kruse, has been planting NK for as long as he can remember. By mid-to-late October, he had finished harvesting his soybeans and was only 20% into his corn — but he was already impressed by what he was seeing on his yield monitor.
“Some of my NK [brand] Enlist E3® varieties were planted on a field that had been in corn for four years, with a little bit lighter ground variable type, and they ended up doing 74.2 Bu/A,” Kruse shared. “On another field about a mile away, we planted NK [brand] Enlist E3 soybeans after five years of continuous corn – they looked spectacular all year and ended up doing 83.0 Bu/A, so I was very happy.”
Kruse was also seeing strong ROI on his NK corn acres. “We have several fields that have been continuous corn for 20 years,” he said “We use a full rate of insecticide (Aztec®) with triple stacks, and we’ve had some double stacks, and our standability thus far has been great.”
With harvest in full swing, NK Seeds sales representative, Corey Stevens, noted several standout NK products for a pretty typical southern Ohio growing season. “With its excellent yield potential and broad adaptability, NK1082 is proving to be a standout product on many farms, and NK1188 really proved itself from a disease standpoint — it handles disease pressure really well,” he shared. “NK0760 is another tried-and-true NK product with excellent stalk strength and late-season standability.”
No matter where you farm, or what agronomic challenges you faced in 2021, we hope you had a successful harvest — and we hope to continue to earn your acres in 2022.
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Ratings are based on interpretation of data gathered by Syngenta and/or observations across areas of adaptation and may change as additional data is gathered. Product performance assumes disease presence.
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Important: Always read and follow label and bag tag instructions; only those labeled as tolerant to glufosinate may be sprayed with glufosinate ammonium-based herbicides. LibertyLink®, Liberty® and the Water Droplet logo are registered trademarks of BASF. GT27™ is a trademark of MS Technologies and BASF. HERCULEX® and the HERCULEX Shield are trademarks of Dow AgroSciences LLC. HERCULEX Insect Protection technology by Dow AgroSciences. Under federal and local laws, only dicamba-containing herbicides registered for use on dicamba-tolerant varieties may be applied. See product labels for details and tank mix partners. NK® soybean varieties are protected under granted or pending U.S. variety patents and other intellectual property rights, regardless of the trait(s) within the seed. The ENLIST E3® soybean, GT27™, LibertyLink®, Roundup Ready 2 Xtend®, Roundup Ready 2 Yield® and XtendFlex® traits may be protected under numerous United States patents. It is unlawful to save soybeans containing these traits for planting or transfer to others for use as a planting seed. Only dicamba formulations that employ VaporGrip® Technology are approved for use with Roundup Ready 2 Xtend® and XtendFlex® soybeans. Only 2,4-D choline formulations with Colex-D® Technology are approved for use with ENLIST E3® soybeans. VaporGrip® is a trademark of, and used under license from, Monsanto Technology LLC. Roundup Ready 2 Xtend®, Roundup Ready 2 Yield®, XtendFlex® and YieldGard VT Pro® are registered trademarks used under license from the Bayer Group. ENLIST E3® soybean technology is jointly developed with Dow AgroSciences LLC and MS Technologies LLC. The ENLIST trait and ENLIST Weed Control System are technologies owned and developed by Dow AgroSciences LLC. ENLIST® and ENLIST E3® are trademarks of Dow AgroSciences LLC. The trademarks or service marks displayed or otherwise used herein are the property of a Syngenta Group Company. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. More information about Agrisure Duracade® is available at www.biotradestatus.com.