What’s in the COFS plots?

The Crop Stop event presented by Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show (COFS), in partnership with Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA) held Sept. 23 and 24 will showcase crop input company plots. Nowhere else can a grower see so many different company plots in one place.

Below is an overview of what to expect at each company’s plot. 

Alpine

Alpine will be showcasing six products this year at Crop Stop: Alpine G241-S, Alpine K19-S, Alpine F18 Max, Alpine SoilMax, Alpine Enjoy and Alpine MoCo. 

Alpine K19-S and Alpine F18 Max are two new products. 

K19-S was applied to the plot through “wings” using FurrowJet from Precision Planting. It is one of the very few formulations enabling growers to mix potassium with UAN.

“This unique placement, three-quarters of an inch to the side of the seed, allows growers to place some high-quality Bio-K sourced potassium near the seed to enhance early growth,” says Ken Brett, Regional Sales Manager with ALPINE. 

F18 Max is a new foliar-applied product designed for early foliage application and is typically applied with herbicides and early fungicides. 

“It contains Bio-K potassium, copper, boron, one percent zinc, and one per cent manganese, which no other product in this timing window would contain,” says Brett. 

Bayer CropScience

Bayer CropScience will be launching some new Dekalb varieties of corn and soybeans with Trecepta and XtendFlex traits, both of which will be commercially available moving forward. 

In total Bayer will have 28 Dekalb corn varieties on display, seven of which will feature the Trecepta technology. As well, there will be 23 Dekalb soybean varieties on display, four of them containing the new XtendFlex technology.

“There are going to be a number of new corn and soybean plots there that folks can learn about with us as we go through the plots,” says Phil Nadalin, Market Development Agronomist with Bayer Canada, Crop Science Division.

During the COFS plot tour Bayer is looking to focus on the seed side, but also introduce new technology which goes hand in hand as a full solution to reach that final high-end yield. 

Brevant

Enlist E3 is the predominant trait within the Brevant soybean plots this year and will be showcased against other herbicide systems to visually recognize differences. 

An influx of new genetics is to be displayed at Crop Stop this year for the Brevant corn line-up as it has been the focus for Brevant over the past year or two in genetics. 

“We’ve got some new hybrids, or recently introduced hybrids, that are really establishing themselves as top shelf performers in Brevant seed lineup,” says Dave Harwood, Technical Services Manager, with Corteva Agriscience. 

Brown Mid Rib (BMR) is a very important technology throughout Brevant’s corn plot this year and the trait is featured throughout a wide range of maturities. 

“[This is so] we can provide a BMR option for virtually every silage producer in Ontario,” says Harwood. 

Brevant is also excited to showcase hybrids with QROME throughout several elite corn hybrids to protect against corn root worm. 

CROPLAN

CROPLAN has eight different demo plots at COFS this year. 

Three of these plots contain 81 to 107-day corn with VTP stack traits and SmartStax. 

CROPLAN is also excited to showcase its new 97-day corn with Trecepta to help protect against western bean cutworm. 

Three soybean plots contain Enlist E3, Xtend and a WinPak traits. 

“[WinPak] is my absolute favourite, something that is unique to CROPLAN,” says Kaitland Miller, Market Development Manager with WinField United Canada. 

Two different varieties with the same maturity and complimentary agronomics are blended in a bag at a 50/50 ratio.

As well, CROPLAN has two alfalfa blocks containing conventional and HarvXtra Megatron varieties. 

“With HVX Megatron you can spray glyphosate, it’s modified low lignin, so high digestibility, and you have some harvest flexibility,” says Miller. 

Finally, CROPLAN will have an adjuvant plot, where they will be demonstrating different WinField United adjuvants with different chemistries. 

DLF Pickseed

DLF Pickseed will be showcasing five different species of forage grasses including Italian Ryegrass, Fescue Type Festulolium, Tall Fescue, Orchardgrass and Timothy at Crop Stop. 

Their primary focus will be on late maturing Orchardgrass, drought tolerant Timothy with improved regrowth after first cut and the Festoulolium advantage – yield and stress tolerance similar to Tall Fescue with forage quality and regrowth comparable to Perennial Rye Grass. 

Three different varieties of alfalfa will also be included in their plots: Triumph HVXRR, Instinct and Vision. 

Triumph HVXRR contains HarvXtra with Roundup Ready technology, to help reduce lignin content without compromising forage quality. 

Finally, they will have 16 different corn hybrids on display, six of which are the newest leading-edge experimental products in their pipeline. 

“We are extremely excited about new VT Double Pro RIB Complete and SmartStax RIB Complete hybrids around 2700 CHUs, as well as our first Trecepta hybrid in the 2800 CHU maturity group,” says Matt Anderson, North American Product Development Manager with DLF Pickseed.

Horizon Seeds

Horizon Seeds has four corn and four soybean varieties this year in its plots.

Within corn plots the focus will be on silage hybrids, specifically HX3172, with 2750 CHUs and leafy genetics to improve palatability, feed values and tonnage. 

As well, Horizon has two new soybeans varieties to showcase this year, Atlas and Landmark with maturities of 0.7 and 0.9. 

“This year with the crazy weather we had, one of our focuses is going to be on plant health and disease. We are going to be drawing attention to better plant health that we can share in our product and the attention that we give to genetics that will create that,” says Rick Van Laecke, president of Horizon Seeds. 

Maizex

Maizex has four plot blocks this year at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show’s Crop Stop event.

For soybeans they will be showcasing varieties with Enlist, Xtend and Xtendflex traits for all maturities and new corn hybrids for the 2022 growing season. 

Maizex representatives says they are pleased with how their plot is looking this year and are enthusiastic to show what’s on site. 

Some of the new corn hybrids are within the 2650 to 3200 heat unit range, including MZ 2711DBR and MZ 4608SMX. 

As well, new soybean hybrids within the 2650 to 3250 heat unit range, including Scorpion E3, Cougar E3, Panther XF and Supreme XF. 

“We always look forward to showcasing new products that combine higher yields with industry best trait platforms, together with our core performance products,” says Stephen Denys, Director Market and Product Development with Maizex. 

NK Seeds

NK Seeds is thrilled to be back at the Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show site to showcase its reinvigorated NK corn portfolio, while continuing to share its soybean success story. 

NK Seeds will be displaying 86 to 107-day corn with the Agrisure Viptera and Agrisure Durcade packages. Integrated in their corn plot they will also be showcasing their new Vayantis seed treatment and Miravis Neo fungicide. 

NK’s full soybean lineup will be showcase 0.2 to 2.9 relative maturities. 

The soybeans will be grouped by trait: conventional soybeans, Enlist E3 soybeans, Xtend and Xtend Flex experimental soybeans. Integrated with the soybean plots will be their crop protection portfolio with their new Saltra seed treatment and Trivapro fungicide. 

“Our NK Seeds brand and team has undergone an extensive revamp and expansion under the new leadership of Dan Wright, Head of Seeds, Canada, and we think the products we’ll showcase at the Crop Stop Days will be on the of the main attractions,” says Danielle Podolinsky, Customer Marketing Manager with NK Seeds. 

Pioneer

Pioneer will continue to feature its primary corn and soybean products at their COFS site with a few new additions. 

Most of the soybean varieties will have Xtend traits, with three of the hybrids on display containing Enlist E3. 

“That reflects the direction we’re going as a company to transition our soybean products to E3 herbicide technology,” says Dave Harwood, Technical Sales Manager with Corteva Agriscience. 

As well Pioneer is looking forward to showcasing the BMR trait, brown mid rib, throughout more corn maturities – 95-day hybrids – within their lineup to offer higher digestibility – lower lignin content.

As well, they will have varieties showcasing the new QROME trait, targeting against above and below ground pests, specifically corn rootworm. 

“[QROME is] really the thing that we want to bring attention to our customers, more than anything in our corn lineup. It really applies to those farmers that are planting corn after corn.” 

Pride Seeds

Pride Seeds is using its plots to showcase the depth in their product line-up.

The site features grain corn, silage and conventional corn blocks, along with, a general soybean block and an Enlist E3 block. 

“We have beans ranging from a 0.06 to 2.8 RM (relative maturity) and grain corn hybrids ranging from a 2625 – 3400 corn heat units (CHU),” says Amanda Craven, Market Development Agronomist with Pride Seeds.

The grain corn block features corn with G2, G8, G4 and G7 options, and new hybrids that will be commercially launched in 2022. 

Pride Seeds is eager to display their two “strong” options in their commercial E3 lineup with 2.1 and 2.7 RM beans.

“In both our corn and soybean blocks we are excited to show our diverse trait offerings. These products would not be in our lineup if they did not have rock solid agronomics and top end yield potential,” says Craven. 

Sevita International

Sevita will have 24 varieties on display this year at COFS, five of which are new food grade conventional varieties and two are new introductions. 

The five new varieties have been assessed and approved by end users in Asia for soyfood use, have shown improved yield performance in Eastern Canada and some soybean cyst nematode resistance. 

As well, one of the new varieties to be introduced at the farm show is a natto variety, which is an important part of the Sevita’s portfolio. 

Two new varieties with AdvancePro traits have been showing great yield and defense this season.

“Sevita continues to work hard to bring better performance to the field and provide better opportunities for higher returns to growers,” says John Van Herk, Product Development and Agronomy Manager with Sevita International.