Proven Products And Practices For Residue Management

By: Industry Voice by Beck’s Hybrids

At the end of each season, one question on everyone’s mind relates to residue management. What equipment is the most effective? What residue management products would perform best in your fields? And most important, what will make you the most money?

During times of challenging commodity prices, farmers are constantly looking for ways to increase yields without breaking the bank. Knowing this, Beck’s Practical Farm Research (PFR)® team continues to strive to help farmers succeed by testing new products as they hit the market so farmers can make more informed input decisions in hopes to increase their return. In addition to the testing and evaluation of new products, Beck’s PFR team provides these yield and return on investment (ROI) results to farmers at no cost through their annual PFR Book.

At the close of the 2016 season, Beck’s PFR team collected their third year of yield data on residue management products, Robust® and Res Plus, which are shown below.

The data from 2016 showed an average yield increase of 5.5 Bu./A. with the use of Robust®. Over three years, this product averaged a yield increase of 6.0 Bu./A. Res Plus was tested for the fourth year in 2016 and showed an average yield increase of 4.5 Bu./A., resulting in an overall average yield increase of 8.7 Bu./A. Because both of these residue management products fulfilled the requirement of having a minimum of three years of data indicating a positive yield increase and an average increase in ROI, both Robust and Res Plus were given the PFR Proven™* stamp at the end of 2016.