In Furrow

It's estimated that 25 percent of acres planted in the U.S. include application of liquid starter fertilizer or "pop-up" fertilizer right in-furrow. That number's expected to grow to approximately 50 percent by 2020. West Central, is a wholesale distributor of crop protection, crop nutrient products, micronutrients and seed treatments. The company has been watching this trend closely. So closely in fact, that last year they created the Leaders of In-Furrow Technology, or LIFT, program, to raise awareness about this important application technique.??Josh Nuytten ("Newton"), director of proprietary business for West Central, shares the reasons this trend is gaining popularity and how it can positively affect growers and retailers. He explains in-furrow planting. "What it really is is simply putting crop protection and crop nutrient products in that seed furrow at time of planting. The other part of it and the reason we got so involved in it, was we have seen this trend growing. That trend is going to continue to grow and there are a couple of reasons why. One is efficiency. When you start to take a crop nutrient product, a starter fertilizer plus a seed treatment plus a fungicide and you put that into an application that can be done while you are planting, that picks up efficiency and that is important to the growers at the time when they are trying to get a lot of acres into the ground in a short amount of time as well as, farmers are definitely planting earlier. They are trying to get out there as soon as they can to get a crop in the ground so that they can maximize their growing degree units. That is the secondary factor to drive a spike in this trend." Yet another example of how vastly improved technology is working to feed an ever-growing population worldwide.