But not for the reasons you’d think an agronomist would be watering drought-parched soils in central Illinois in the middle of summer.
3 for this site, and this is the first year we’ve had a really bad drought,” he said.
This year, we’re having trouble getting weeds to grow,” Prater said.
Field Trials The Syngenta plot that the company leases from a local farmer packs a lot of research into a small space.
Prater said there are from 100 to 150 different trials going on in the plot.
Those trials can include application timing.
“We’ve had farmers with fungicide trials, early applications on corn and some trials with herbicide applications, that they saw here and they’re ramping it up at their farmers or on customers’ farms,” Prater said.
Prater said one of the trials he’s enthusiastic about is soybean fungicide trials and the results he’s seen at the plot.
“In this area, right here, I’ve had better luck with return on soybean fungicides than I had with corn.
Another feature of the plot is the Golden Harvest “stress wheel.” That consists of corn planted in a wheel spoke pattern to test the pressures of different populations on the corn plants.