BASF RevX Fields provide US growers with local, on-farm fungicide data

Following the EPA registration of its newest fungicides – Veltyma™ fungicide in corn and Revytek™ fungicide in soybeans – BASF worked with more than 1,200 growers across the country as part of the RevX Fields program. The program allowed growers to experience the newest BASF Plant Health fungicide offerings in their own backyards. RevX Fields is designed to provide local, relevant and transparent yield results.

 

“We’ve found there are often multiple barriers growers face when deciding to use fungicides,” said Dr. Josh Miller, BASF Technical Marketing Manager. “BASF created the RevX Fields program to be a true hands-on experience with Veltyma and Revytek fungicides. It was important for us to provide useful data for growers in the program, but it was also important to provide access for growers outside of the program, to see benefits in their own backyards.”

 

The RevX Fields program took place during the 2019 growing season following the EPA registration of Veltyma and Revytek fungicides. The program allowed for on-farm data to be gathered so growers could better make informed fungicide decisions. In addition, all RevX Fields were flown using drones by Aker Technology Inc., an independent crop diagnostics and analytics company, to supply growers with normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) imagery and other environmental indicators of their fields near application and approximately seven weeks following application.

 

 

“What sets our crop diagnostics service apart, making it helpful to these growers, is that we collected data from each field using drones and specialized sensors, not satellite,” said Orlando Saez, CEO and Co-Founder, Aker Technology Inc. “This allowed timely and real in-field data to supplement BASF’s crop models to help growers in the RevX Fields program understand how these products were working and how they could make proactive updates to their plans in-season.”

 

The information gathered from this large-scale program also provided growers who did not participate in the program with access to data from fields in their area at RevXFields.com. All results were compiled and updated weekly in an interactive map that anyone can access from the website. Now, growers can explore local RevX Fields results gathered from their peers and are able to learn from those participants’ experiences.

 

For growers that provided combined yield files, the data is independently validated through a third-party. As of February 2020, there have been 321 on-farm yield results harvested, showing a +11.5 bu/A yield advantage of Veltyma fungicide over untreated in corn across 70 family farms and a +6.2 bu/A yield advantage of Revytek fungicide over untreated in soybeans across 88 family farms.

 

In addition to offering broad-scale data from the RevX Fields, a select number of growers were chosen to work with Karrot Research, who provided more in-depth analysis of their data. Two growers working Karrot Research set world record breaking yields in corn at 616 bu/A and in soybeans at 190 bu/A. 

 

“We managed trials with a select number of growers who already consistently apply fungicides to provide another layer of data,” said Alice Robinson, CEO, Karrot Research. “We were able to gain true confidence in these fungicide trials as we analyzed data throughout the season for variability, spatial effects and significance.”