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Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Hey, good morning, and thanks to all you listeners out there for joining us again today. We really appreciate the feedback from everyone who has been following along as we unfold all the pieces of the MAX Yield System.  Today, we’re going to focus on the crop protection plan, but before we do, I just want to cover the basics, again, of the MAX Yield System and why it is right for you. The Max Yield System is a systems approach to increasing yield over time by focusing on the controllable variables of farming, which means you as the farmer, take control of your yield by making yield improving systems adjustments to your operation over time. When you do this, you achieve your goals, you have less stress and more yield, which, in turn means more money and the ability to grow your farm and leave a legacy for the next generation. Our role at Axis Seed-Red Barn is to help you create a plan that will increase yield over time. Help you focus on the variables that are within your control and help you achieve the goals you have for your operation. Which means we develop a relationship that provides for achieving both your goals and our goals over time. But the truth is, most growers never put the time and effort into creating a detailed and written plan for increasing yield and achieving their goals, which means they never achieve them.  So let’s dive in today to the crop protection plan. Let’s see how this piece of it can help you achieve your goals. This is kind of a timely topic, because we’re here in March, and the temperatures are starting to warm up, and weed emergence is right around the corner. So two basic ideas of the crop protection plan that we’re going to cover today revolve around the herbicide plan. And crop protection planning can also include insecticide, pneumaticide, fungicide, which we’ll save those for a later episode. Really, both of these pieces revolve around the timing of application. Herbicide planning today, I think it’s getting simpler and simpler from the standpoint of when to spray. Weeds continue to become resistant to more and more chemicals, and so when can only be answered two ways. Spray early and spray often. A good friend of mine told me this many years ago and today, I think it’s more true than ever. Spraying early, it’s just a cornerstone of a good herbicide plan. When we do spray early we need to use a robust pre-emergent herbicide, and that’s more important today, as the weeds are becoming difficult, or nearly impossible, to kill with post-emergence herbicides, especially when the crop is up and growing. And it also fits right into achieving maximum yields, because max yield cannot be achieved when weeds are growing in your field, robbing your crops of valuable soil moisture and fertility. So as you go to the field this spring, remember this, use that robust pre-emergent herbicide combined with an early application, it’s the best system to achieve max yields.  Thanks again for listening to today’s episode of the EZ Ag Podcast where innovative farming meets practical solutions. That’s all for today. I’m Matt Long, Grow Your Yield. Grow Your Legacy. Grow Strong with Axis Seed.

After investing in high-quality corn seed, proper storage and handling are crucial to protect seed quality and ensure strong germination rates at planting time. Without the right conditions, seed vigor can decline, leading to poor stand establishment and reduced yield potential . Here are six essential tips to keep your corn seed in peak condition from delivery to planting. 1. Store Seed in a Cool, Dry Location Corn seed quality declines rapidly when exposed to excess heat and humidity . To preserve seed vigor: ✔ Keep seed in a temperature-controlled environment (ideal range: 50-60°F ). ✔ Avoid placing seed in direct sunlight or near heat sources like machinery or fuel tanks. ✔ Monitor temperature fluctuations— highs above 85°F can damage seed quality. 2. Maintain Proper Moisture Levels Moisture exposure is a major threat to stored seed. Excess humidity can cause mold, fungus, and premature germination. To protect seed: ✔ Store seed in a low-humidity area (below 50% relative humidity ). ✔ Keep seed in original, sealed packaging to prevent moisture absorption. ✔ Use pallets to keep bags off the ground, reducing condensation risks. 3. Avoid Chemical Contamination Corn seed can absorb harmful chemicals, reducing germination and seedling vigor. Keep seed away from: ✔ Herbicides, fertilizers, and fuel —even vapors can cause damage. ✔ Treated and untreated seed—cross-contamination may affect performance. 4. Protect Against Pests & Rodents Rodents and insects can destroy seed integrity. Keep your storage area clean and secure by: ✔ Storing seed in sealed bins, containers, or rodent-proof bags . ✔ Regularly inspecting for signs of rodents or insect damage . ✔ Keeping the area free of spilled grain or residue that attracts pests. 5. Handle Seed with Care Even small amounts of mechanical damage—cracked kernels, scuffs, or bruising—can reduce germination rates . Protect seed quality by: ✔ Minimizing drops and rough handling during transport and storage. ✔ Using gentle handling equipment , such as slow-speed conveyors instead of augers. ✔ Avoiding excessive friction and impact, which can break the seed coat. 6. Plan for Timely Use Corn seed maintains peak performance for one planting season . To avoid quality loss: ✔ Minimize seed carry over, and perform a germination test before planting. ✔ Check for signs of deterioration , such as discoloration, unusual odors, or clumping. Final Thoughts By following these simple storage and handling tips, you can protect your investment, maintain seed quality, and set your crop up for success . Proper storage today leads to stronger stands, better emergence, and higher yields . -Matt Long

Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Welcome to the EZ Ag podcast where innovative farming meets practical solutions before we dig into today’s topic, a quick shout out to say thank you to our listeners. Please take a moment to like and subscribe to the EZ Ag podcast so you never miss another episode. Now let’s get to it. So today, I want to jump in here and visit with you guys a little bit more in depth about Axis Seed. You know about how it fits into the seed plan, part of the MAX Yield system. And I’m really gonna visit with you about our hybrid testing program and how this is really a legacy building program, both for our business and for your farm. And so, you know, just to get back to some of the basics. Axis Seed is a national brand. It’s made up of 19 independent regional companies that cover 25 states. And what we do as part of that regional company here at Red Barn, we’re the independent regional company for west central and southwest Kansas. And really we get to make those independent decisions about hybrids and prices and program that fit our geography. So I want to kind of dial back into this Axis Seed is a national brand with local ownership. And what we’re doing here at Red Barn, we’re dialing in the data, we’re using local testing, we’re making local ratings, and we’re getting local results. We’re using data that’s more local, we believe, than any of our competitors. And the reason we’re doing that is because your farm is more valuable and more local, in our opinion, than any set of data from anywhere else. And so, last week here in January, we were in Iowa for the winter production meeting for Axis Seed. We came together with these other 19 regional companies. So the owners, the agronomy teams, the product selection specialists for these other businesses, and we come together with the companies that breed the corn that we select from to test and to produce to sell in this geography. And so one of the really finite things about this is we’re making an independent decision that could be different than the next IRC in the room, and we’re working directly with those breeders to develop the product portfolio that fits our geography. But we also get to hear the feedback from those breeders about what they saw in our geography and across other areas, as well as what the other IRC owner and product specialists saw about those hybrids.  And so I wanted to kind of flip back to that legacy building idea that I first put out there in late January in our Grow Your Legacy email, how do you create a plan and what the MAX Yield system brings to you? And then I’m going to show you guys, or give you guys, a little peek into how I use that same system in our business. And so if you remember, from January in the Grow Your Yield email, I talked about Plan, Execute and Debrief. And then later in the Grow Your Legacy email, I talked about Good, Difficult and Different. And so I’m kind of going to just tell you real quick about how I use these two systems in this hybrid selection. And so, if you look at what we did in 2024 we came up with a plan for local testing of commercial and experimental hybrids. And the reason we really want to get that local testing is because we want to have that local data on these hybrids. And so we put out six plots in 2024, pH, flex, dry land, limited and fully irrigated environments, and we developed a rubric for rating these hybrids. And so that was really how we planned to go to the field and evaluate both commercial and experimental hybrids in our system, and so that’s the plan piece. So how did we execute that piece? Well, we executed that piece by going to the field, going into every one of these plots on a weekly basis throughout the summer. So once that corn starts popping out of the ground, we’re out there making ratings on it. And we did that every week. And when we’re out in those fields, we even flagged where we walked those plots so that we got ourselves back into the same area every week, so that we could really get a good rating from week to week on the changes of those corn hybrids. And then at the end of the day, you kind of need to develop a little bit of focus, because our rubric for rating these hybrids has 19 different characteristics that we’re rating, so we really have to dial that into what are the most important of those characteristics? Obviously, the most important characteristic is yield. That’s the thing that drives profitability and return on investment on your farm, and so yield being one of those top ones. But how do we get to that yield? Well, ear flex is a big mover in our market, pH tolerance and drought tolerance. And so we dialed in on those four top metrics, yield, ear flex, pH tolerance and drought tolerance, but we went ahead and rated these across all 19 of those metrics, so that if there was some other undesirable trait about when these hybrids, we could cull them out of the program. So plan, execute, now we’re at the debrief stage.  So debrief, what did we learn in 2024 and how do we improve the 2025 testing program? You remember, in the debrief, we use Good, Difficult, Different scenarios to figure out, what did we do Good? Well, one of the good things, I think, that came out of this, is we gained more knowledge of the of our products. We gained more knowledge even of our commercial products, which results in higher yields on your farm through better product placement decisions for the 2025 growing season. So what was Difficult about the things that we did in the field? Well, one of the really difficult things that we can’t control, but it is something we need to try to manage a little better, is we weren’t able to overcome the drought conditions in our dry land testing environments. So we didn’t get that yield number back, and we didn’t really get a good look at the ear flex of some of these hybrids in a dry land environment. And so when we’re looking at Difficult, we’re looking at what was something that didn’t go well but needs to be improved for next year. And so in 2025 we got to look at, how do we overcome those drought conditions in the dry land testing environments?  Then the last part of this debrief, what do we do Different so what didn’t work, or what didn’t work really well. And you know, one of the things that we had that was a pretty big struggle was plot layout, and part of this is because of plot size. So we had a lot of hybrids in our testing program last year, and we had a lot of tests out there. So this year, we need to dial in. We need to take a different approach to plot layout and plot size, and then we also need to make sure, as we’re going through, we do a better job of product selection by environment, by relative maturity and by crop rotation. So we had one plot in particular that was continuous corn environment, and we have several hybrids that are above ground only. That trait package didn’t work in that environment, and so we got to take a Different approach next year. We got to make sure that we’re selecting those products by Environment relative maturity and crop rotation. So let’s just talk real quick before we take off, about what we gained from the 2024 testing program. You know, we tested 16 brand new hybrids. We were able to commercialize two of those hybrids from the yield results that will be planted on farms in 2025 so then what does the 2025 testing program look like? Well, we’re excited to expand our testing program from six to 11 plots for evaluation. And so we’re going from six locations this year in those different environments to 11 locations next year. We’re shrinking the size of those plots down a little bit. We’re expanding our testing from two counties to five counties in west central and southwest Kansas. We’re going to retest six hybrids from the 2024 class, because they look like they had some potential, but they also look like they might have some holes in them. So we need to take a little closer look at those before we commercialize them. We’re going to commercialize three additional hybrids. We didn’t have the opportunity to get seed on these for 2025 planting, but we’re going to commercialize three additional hybrids from the 2024 class that we can plant on your farm in 2026 and those hybrids will be in the plots again this year. And then we’re going to test 17 brand new hybrids in 2025. So a couple things about these 17 hybrids is they range in maturity, relative maturity, from 98 day to 117 day. So you know, we’re kind of getting the full gamut there, on planting timing and genetic potential. They include genetic options from the four main providers that we’re working with, Corteva, Bayer, Syngenta, and Thurston is a BASF company, and then it includes three different above ground trait stacks and two above and below ground trait stacks. So we’re looking at five different trait stacks on these 17 new hybrids from these four different providers, and we’re going to run them back through that same rigorous testing scenario that we had where we plant now at 11 local plots, we evaluate those plots on a weekly basis against 19 hybrid characteristics, and we’re looking really in depth at those four, yield, ear flex, pH tolerance, and drought tolerance but we’re using other pieces of those 15 to cull out some of the hybrids that don’t fit our geography. And what that means to us is, just like I said at the beginning we have more local data than our competitors because your farm is more valuable and more local than any set of data from anywhere else.  That’s all for today. I’m Matt Long. Thanks for joining us on this episode of EZ Ag. Grow your yield. Grow your legacy. Grow strong with Axis Seed, thank you!

Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Welcome to the EZ Ag podcast where innovative farming meets practical solutions before we dig into today’s topic, a quick shout out to say thank you to our listeners. Please take a moment to like and subscribe to the EZ Ag podcast so you never miss another episode. Now let’s get to it. Gonna start out today, we’re diving a little deeper into this MAX Yield System‒Fertility Plan. Specifically, we’re going to talk about phosphorus and sulfur, and we probably should call this episode sulfur, because there’s just so many things that we’re learning and experiencing with sulfur these days. Areas where really, it gives us a lot of opportunity to improve our production, improve our plant health, and improve our nutrient uptake all around but phosphorus and sulfur is going to be the main piece of it.  I just want to follow up a little bit, though, on our last episode, you know, we kind of closed out that episode talking a lot about nitrogen. And obviously, nitrogen is, you know, the most widely used fertilizer. The things that we see with nitrogen, you know, we get a bigger, greener plant, typically get higher yields. But the question with nitrogen, I think that everybody asks, because it’s such a volatile nutrient, you know, with its ability, literally, to volatilize off the top of the soil, its ability to leach out of the soil is, how much nitrogen do we need? And how much is too much, and this is a really difficult thing for a lot of growers to grasp. It’s a really difficult thing for crop consultants to grasp. But nitrogen recommendations vary by application timing, by product, by crop, and many other things. And so, I think it’s important to know what you’re doing with nitrogen today, and when you start making changes to that nitrogen system, make them slowly in steps, so you don’t get yourself out of sync to where you see nitrogen deficiency in your crop, or you apply nitrogen in excess. Because excess of any nutrient causes a problem in the soil where we have too much one thing, it can tie up another thing. Or it can create a loss of productivity. It’s something as you try to dial in these programs you want to be careful about how quickly you turn those knobs. And if we’re going to talk about corn, a lot of guys want to know, “Hey, Matt, where are you going with your recommendations?” You know, corn good farming practices in our area, I’m typically looking at like point nine to 1.2 pounds per bushel on your yield goal. And then we’re going to subtract several different credits, depending on what soil test we’re looking at. We might subtract credit for organic matter, and we might subtract the credit for nitrate on that soil test. And then, the other thing we’re going to subtract is we’re going to pull out those pounds of nutrient that we’re crediting to biological sources like Pivot Bio. And so we’re going to come down to a final number. This is our nitrogen rate for this field for the year, through that Max Yield System, through field scouting, we’re going to go out there, we’re going to confirm in season how that nitrogen program is working. You know, there’s always the opportunity to make a little adjustment along the way, bump yourself with some amino acid or some foliar nitrogen in season. You know, to get that last push if you think you have a chance for higher yields, or if you think you’re seeing a little nitrogen deficiency there, that’s all about nitrogen for today.  I’m going to jump back and we’re going to talk about sulfur and phosphorus, and really we’re going to spend some time on sulfur. I want to talk about why sulfur is so important. And I actually started kind of pushing sulfur three or four years ago, more and more, just as our soil test levels continue to show that we’re low in sulfur, a lot of soil tests that I’m pulling these days, and even for last few years, are showing single digit available sulfur numbers. And just here last fall, Certified Crop Advisor sent out an email, it was about a webinar that was titled Sulfur, The Fourth Macronutrient . So we obviously have N, P, and K, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium as macronutrients. We’ve been taught that. That’s been the lingo of crop fertility for years and years, and now they’re starting to turn around and say sulfur, the fourth macronutrient.  Why is it becoming more important? Well, sulfur is lost in our soils through leaching. And it’s used in our soils in a high amount by our crops. And so, you know, that’s why we’re really seeing these sulfur levels in the soil decrease over time, and then there’s a decrease in the amount of natural deposit of sulfur into our soils. So before the Clean Air Act, we had acid rain, and acid rain deposited a lot of sulfur into our soils for our crops to use. And since the Clean Air Act, we’ve cleaned up pollution in the atmosphere, and we get a lot less sulfur out of our rain water. Now, you know, we need to pay more attention in our soil testing to what our sulfur levels are, and start applying that sulfur through various forms. There’s AMS dry flowable, a lot of guys use it as a water conditioner. It can also be applied as dry for a source of nitrogen and sulfur. There’s also ammonium thiosulfate, or thiazol as most guys would call it, liquid form 12-O-O-26, you’re going to get sulfur through that.  So the question is, how much sulfur do we actually need? And the thing to understand about sulfur is, it’s used by the crop in the sulfate form. And this would be similar to phosphorus, it’s used by the crop in the phosphate form. So, SO₄, sulfate, and phosphate, P₂O₅, the crop uses about the same amount of these two in in the form that they use them. So a pound of sulfate for a pound of phosphate. And so when we look at those soil test levels, we haven’t been paying any attention to sulfur for years and years, we’ve just been using nitrogen and phosphorus. It’s time to really start looking at that sulfur and think about, how much sulfur do we need, how fast can we afford to bring our soil test levels up, and what are we going to get back in return? Well, you know, a lot of the focus has been on phosphorus and starter fertilizer to get that faster growing and greener plant with very little emphasis on sulfur. And so now we’re going to take that sulfur emphasis, and we’re going to talk about why. So sulfur makes your nitrogen use by the crop more efficient. Nitrogen is one of the biggest dollar spends on a crop annually and why wouldn’t we want to make that nitrogen work more efficiently in the plant? This is also one of the keys when we look at what that right nitrogen rate is, if we have low sulfur levels in our soils, and we’re not using sulfur in our fertilizer plan, then we need to increase that nitrogen rate closer to that 1.2 pounds per bushel. If we have good sulfur levels, we can back that off some, because we get that efficiency of the nitrogen and sulfur.  The other thing sulfur does is sulfur buffers the soil pH. You know, we have a lot of lot of high pHs out here in our soils in this area, and pH is above 6.5 and pushing toward 8 in a lot of these soils, 6.5is kind of where you see that sweet spot, micronutrient availability, or just overall nutrient availability. As you push 7 and north of 7 toward 8. You see a lot of those micronutrients are getting tied up in the soil. And so when you use sulfur, you can buffer that soil pH, you can kind of trick that soil into releasing more of those micronutrients than you would typically see if your sulfur levels are low, thats really the things we’re trying to accomplish with phosphorus and sulfur are how do we do this efficiently and tricking that soil pH allowing that phosphorus and micronutrients to be more available is really important. Theres a lot of studies out there talking about soil applied phosphorus only about 20% of the phosphorus that you apply to your soil gets into the plant. The other 80% of it is tied up by something else in the soil, most likely tied up by calcium. And so its like how quickly can we make that change, well we don’t want to make it too fast. Again similar to the nitrogen program, we want to make strides at increasing that sulfur level in the soil so that phosphate and those other micronutrients are available.  So we talked about we need sulfate and phosphate basically in the same level in the soil so that those plants can grow and respond to that fertilizer. We talked about how sulfate really increases the efficiency of nitrogen. And it’s going to increase the efficiency of phosphorus and your other micronutrients as well by buffering that soil pH. I think those are the important things we’ve got to look at as we try to round out that nutrient plan. There’s a lot of micronutrients that we can talk about, zinc, copper, iron, and others, but lets focus on these big ones first and make sure that we have those pieces dialled in, so that when we get to using the micronutrients, which are usually the most expensive nutrients, then we know that what we’re applying is going to get into our plant and going to make a ROI for us, versus just making those applications of nutrients and letting that get tied up in those soils. That’s all for today. I’m Matt Long. Thanks for joining us on this episode of EZ Ag. Grow your yield. Grow your legacy. Grow strong with Axis Seed, thank you!

Since we’re still kicking off the new year to some extent, and finalizing plans for the fast approaching growing season, let’s continue to dive into the Max Yield System and all the pieces that can help you achieve profitability in 2025 – and beyond. If you’ve been listening and reading along these past couple months, you already know the key pieces of the Max Yield System are the Crop Plan, Fertility Plan, Crop Protection Plan, and Harvest Evaluation. During February we’re going to spend some time talking through parts of the Fertility and Crop Protection plans, and time is of the essence… so if you haven’t already, get in touch with us and let’s get your plan for 2025 Profitability in place! Fertility planning is both simple and complex. It all starts with a Crop Plan to identify the crop for the field, the APH for the crop, and the bushel/1000 plants goal. After developing that plan we map out and take soil samples and evaluate yield limiting nutrients. There’s a lot to unpack here so I’ll just touch on a few, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur, if you’re not paying attention to these three levels on your soil test, or you’re not taking a soil test – you should be. Nitrogen is a tricky element to determine the correct application rate of, but with experience and time, dialing in a nitrogen program that works and is economical is possible. First, determine the total amount of nitrogen needed, to do this we’ll need to pull information from the crop plan. Then we will take a look at key indicators on a soil test that we use in our nitrogen planning which include: Organic Matter (OM), NO3 Surface, NO3 Subsoil, Estimated Nitrogen Release (ENR) and CEC. Other factors that can influence Nitrogen Use Efficiency are soil test Sulfur levels, nitrogen source, and application timing and placement. All of these factors are used to determine the correct application rate and dial in this part of the Max Yield System. We need to remember, the more sources and times we use nitrogen, typically the more efficient we are at growing a crop with less nitrogen, and sources like Pivot Bio often allow us to reach the highest Nitrogen Use Efficiency.  Phosphorus is a game of haves and have nots, where it seems some farms with significant history of manure or phosphorus applications have sufficient soil test P, and others do not, sometimes within a field this even shows up by soil type and pH. Referring back to the Crop Plan and determining the estimated P removal by the crop is the first step. Then let’s look at factors on the soil test that influence the amount of P application we are looking at needing. Phosphorus is reported in several different ways depending on what lab is used, what the soil pH is and what extraction method is used. Typically soil test levels of 25ppm on the Bray P 1 are considered sufficient for growing a crop. If you find yourself with levels at or above 25 ppm the question is how high are they? I’ve experienced soils with soil test P levels in excess of 100 ppm which didn’t require phos applications for multiple years, in other circumstances if soil test P levels are just at or above the threshold, a starter fertilizer or a P application based on crop removal may be warranted. Just like Pivot Bio for Nitrogen, the biological space for P is starting to heat up with microbes known as Phosphorus Solubilizing Bacteria. If you’re planning to use phosphorus solubilizing bacteria, you’ll want to also look at your Bray P2 levels as this is where most of the P that becomes available to the plant is going to come from.  Finally for today let’s touch on Sulfur. Sulfur is now being touted as the fourth macronutrient. Sulfur is helpful in many ways, the acidity of Sulfur helps buffer soil pH allowing micronutrients and phosphorus to be more plant available. Sulfur also is essential in the uptake and efficiency of Nitrogen as mentioned above. Utilizing sulfur in your nitrogen blends is a best practice in my opinion, it makes your nitrogen more efficient as well as has some stabilizing effects when surface applied in a nitrogen blend. Sulfur levels in most soils I’ve tested in the past 3-5 years continue to be at or below minimum thresholds. The goal here is 20 ppm. Understanding sulfur’s role in nitrogen efficiency and phosphorus and micronutrient availability makes sulfur an easy investment. Understanding a plant needs sulfur, utilized in the SO4 (Sulfate) form as much as it needs phosphorus which it utilizes in the P2O5 (Phosphate) form. And there’s really no reason to skimp on it if you need it. Ammonium Thiosulfate 12-0-0-26 is the easiest form to work with if you primarily use liquid fertilizer on your farm, and both Ammonium Sulfate and Elemental Sulfur can be used in a dry form. So like I said earlier, it’s simple and complex. The simple part is collecting the information, the complex part is developing the plan that both meets the needs of the crop and returns us the highest ROI.  But the most important part to remember is if you don’t have a plan now, time is of the essence! -Matt Long

Let’s face it, Growing Your Legacy is no easy task. For most of us in production agriculture, our legacy is one that started long before we were born, and by definition will continue long after we are dead. So, how do you Grow Your Legacy? Enter Max Yield System . Like I mentioned in my last write up, the Max Yield System is your plan for profitability in 2025. If used properly it is your plan for profitability every year. Remember the principles, 1) decide to make a plan, 2) decide to execute the plan, and 3) debrief in order to implement and improve the plan for next year. The debrief is the critical component for Growing Your Legacy because it identifies places to improve and new practices to implement in the future – and a legacy is a future.  So how do you debrief to Grow Your Legacy? I like to use a simple process called Good, Difficult, and Different. Make three separate lists, first list all the things that went Good . On this list could be things like pre-emergent herbicide plans, seed portfolios, or fertilizer efficiency. Next you’re going to make the Difficult list. This is a list of things that you feel are the right thing to do but need improvement. A couple things I know growers are working on here are starter fertilizer blends, efficient application of Pivot Bio, etc. Finally make a list of the things that you need a Different solution to. Different means we need to go back to the drawing board and start with a fresh slate, the process or product that you are using just isn’t working and you need to find a different solution. After you have identified the good, difficult, and different items, put them to work in your Max Yield System and Grow Your Legacy.  If you make the commitment to Grow Your Legacy, I’ll support you along the way. The Max Yield System is a customizable process that helps identify and implement improvements to Grow Your Yield and Grow Your Legacy. Don’t delay, let’s get your Max Yield System plan for 2025 profitability completed today, my calendar is filling up, will you be one of the few growers who start 2025 with a plan for profitability? -Matt Long

Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Welcome to the EZ Ag podcast where innovative farming meets practical solutions. Before we dig into today’s topic, a quick shout out to say thank you to our listeners, please take a moment to like and subscribe to the EZ Ag podcast so you never miss another episode. Now, let’s get to it.  So jumping in here, on the third part of the MAX Yield System, today we’re going to talk about the fertility plan. And I wanted to ask you something, have you ever driven a vehicle with no gas gauge? That’s what fertility planning is like, if you don’t soil test. You need gas when you’re driving that vehicle, you just don’t know when, and you don’t really know how much. And so the natural tendency when you’re driving a vehicle with no gas gauge, to fill it up every time you stop at a gas station, or to fill it up every morning, or just to fill it up and fill it up and fill it up every chance you get. While that may work with a vehicle with a gas gauge, the problem you have with fertility planning and making fertilizer applications to a soil is the size of the tank is nearly limitless. You can apply a nearly endless amount of fertilizer to a soil, and when you do that with no knowledge of what you have in the soil, you disrupt natural biological processes and balances that are necessary to grow crops. Some people kind of scratch their head a little bit and they say, “Well, Matt, I’ve been doing a really good job growing a crop by just applying 60 pounds of N or 80 pounds of N or 100 pounds of N before every wheat crop, before every corn crop.” While that may work, is it the most economical way to go about it? Soil tests are one of the least expensive inputs on a per acre basis out there in farming today. Even some of the more advanced testing that I do with some zones or using testing through Agronomy365 from BW Fusion, where you really get an in depth look at what you have in your soil there. We’re looking at an investment of maybe $1 to $3 an acre, versus almost everything else you use on the farm being substantially more expensive than that. I really want to talk to you guys today about fertility planning, about things that we’re looking at on these soil tests to help us make these decisions. What you’re doing with fertility planning is really you’re just making an educated guess. So we’re going to jump back and we’re going to look at some information from that crop plan in your MAX Yield System, and that’s going to help us identify some of what we need to do in the fertility plan here.  So first thing we’re going to do, we’re going to go out there, we’re going to take a soil test. We’re going to look at the levels that we have in there. There’s different labs that you can use. You can jump back to one of our earlier episodes where I talked specifically about soil testing, about how to use soil tests and get consistent results from them, or results that create consistency in your program, and use that information now in your fertility plan, along with information from your crop plan. The information we need from the crop plan is really when we’re looking at this fertility planning on a field by field basis, we’re going to look at your APH of the crop that you’re planning to grow, and then what your bushels per 1000 goal is, if you’re growing corn, or what your yield goal maybe is on this field, that’s going to be an important piece on making this fertility plan, along with the information that you get back out of your soil test. I’m a big believer that we apply fertilizer based on the bushels per 1000 or yield goal that we have for this field or for a zone in a field, if we’re working with zone sampling here and zone application, but you use that information to make that recommendation. One of the things that I think we’ve got to be cognizant of is, like I was talking about in that gas tank, is we don’t want to over apply year after year after year and disrupt some of those natural processes that go on in the soil and that balance that’s in the soil, because a balanced soil has the ability to release soil nutrients to a crop at a faster rate and at a more balanced rate for what that crops need actually is, because all of the fertility that ends up in a crop goes through a biological process, and those biological processes function better when your soil chemistry is in balance.  Let’s talk a little bit about nitrogen. That seems to be the biggest one that all of us are using to grow a crop. So let’s talk about N, and let’s talk about how much N do we actually need? I’ve got different theories on this. I’ve been doing some different things on my own farm, and just looking at my soil test results year after year. I think what we need to grow a dry land crop is actually substantially less than what most people believe. The reason I say that is, I’m using that advanced soil testing through Agronomy365 and you look at some of the numbers coming back out of those soil reports, and it might say that I have, we’ll say, 50 pounds of N available and I always take a 0 to 6 sample, and then I take a 6 to 24 to look at nitrate. So I’ve got 50 pounds of nitrate available to my crop. I’m going to credit that back into that calculation of how much nitrogen I need. But then later, in that same test result I might see that I have, a soil that is going to naturally release nitrogen throughout the year. Every soil goes through this warming and cooling effect and wetting and drying effect in the biological processes of that soil speed up or slow down based on how warm it is and how wet it is. In that process, you have natural breakdown of organic matter in your soil and when you have that natural breakdown of that organic matter in your soil, guess what it’s doing? It’s releasing free nitrogen to you. So I want to take into account that estimated nitrogen release, or ENR, as it’s reported on the soil test in my calculation. Some guys say, “Well, you know what, if you have a really wet year Matt and you grow a crop way better than you’re expecting, are you going to leave yourself short by crediting all this nitrogen and all this estimated nitrogen release off your soil test?” What I tell you is, the answer is, probably no. And the other answer is, if it does happen, there’s things you can do in season to overcome it. Let’s kind of analyze two pieces of that. The reason the answer is probably no is because the wetter and and warmer it is, to an extent, we’re not talking about extremely hot, but the wetter and the warmer that soil gets, the more nitrogen it’s going to release from that soil organic matter. So when we have these years where we have ideal conditions to grow a really phenomenal crop, our soil is pumping the nitrogen out naturally. When we have the years where it’s just hot and dry and we’re not growing a crop, guess what? The soil is not giving up the nitrogen either, and it’s holding on to that organic matter and because it’s holding on to that organic matter, you’re not losing anything, and there’s really nothing to gain, because the weather isn’t conducive to growing that big crop anyways. So some people would sit back and say, “whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I don’t want to mine my soil.” Well, guys, I’m here to tell you that the soil is naturally giving this up; you’re not mining it. Nitrogen is an element that’s free in the soil. It’s one that is going to move out of the soil profile with rainfall, it’s going to be given off as a gas. If you’re doing tillage, it’s one that you want to take advantage of. If your soil is naturally producing nitrogen, you want to take advantage of it. The soil is a terrible place to store nitrogen, and that’s just all there is to it. Some people would challenge me on that assumption, some people say, “Hey, we live in an arid environment, and we don’t have leaching, we don’t have nitrogen loss in our soil because we don’t get enough rainfall.” I’m here to tell you guys, if you ever pulled deep soil samples, three foot, four foot deep samples, and sent them to the lab, had the nitrogen analysis done on it, guess what? There’s nitrogen there. Have you ever applied nitrogen three and four feet deep? No, nobody does. You can’t. So how did the nitrogen get there? Some say, well, it just naturally occurs. No, it doesn’t. Biological activity only happens in about the top seven inches of the soil, because air really can’t get below that to allow that biological process to happen. All the biology in the soil is between the surface and the depth that your fence posts rot, and that’s where all of the nutrients in the soil are produced. If you find the nutrients deeper in the soil, if you’re finding nitrogen at two foot, nitrogen at three foot, nitrogen at four foot deep, by doing a really deep sample, it’s because it has leached there. We know from studies that universities do, anytime a soil is at 60% or greater of field capacity, field capacity being the most amount of water that a soil can hold before runoff or leaching occurs, if a soil is at 60% of field capacity or more, there is loss of water below the ridding depth of the soil so it starts leaking out the bottom anytime it’s greater than 60% of field capacity. So if you have water loss, you have loss of nutrients in that water and nitrogen moves in water, so does sulfur. When nitrogen moves, it takes calcium with it, and that’s why, especially in our no till soils, you’ll see that you have a lower calcium in the topsoil than you have in the subsoil, because when that nitrogen is leaching out of that topsoil with rainfall, it’s taking calcium with it, and it’s taking it down into the subsoil. So there’s things that our soil test can teach us. There’s things that we know about how nutrients work within the soil. We’ve got to use that in our fertility planning and use the information that’s available to us through that soil testing. So kind of a little bit of a dive into fertility planning today and why we need to use soil testing as part of it. In the next episode, I’m going to talk about the fertility plan again, and I’m going to get specific on what my recommendations are on nitrogen and phosphorus, sulfur, zinc and other micros that you need to grow that top crop of corn this next year. So fertility planting, it all starts with soil testing, because you have to have a gauge to know how much to put in. That’s all for today. I’m Matt Long. Thanks for joining us on this episode of EZ Ag. Grow your yield. Grow your legacy. Grow strong with Axis Seed, thank you!

Let’s start off the new year by talking about exactly what every farmer reading this is thinking about, 2025 Profitability – or the lack thereof .  The truth is, it’s really a simple problem to solve, there is a path to profitability in 2025, it just takes you. You have to decide to create a plan that will solve the problems of each field on your farm. You have to decide to execute the plan , make adjustments along the way, and continue to drive on toward the goals you have set. Then, at the end of the season you have to gather the results, the consultants, and the suppliers you partnered with along the way and de-brief in order to implement and improve the plan for next year . The problem is 90% of you won’t do it. 90% of growers won’t create a clear written field by field plan of what they plan to do, when they plan to do it, and what it is going to cost. 90% of growers won’t execute a plan because they don’t have one. 90% of growers won’t take the time to analyze the data, and debrief the results of the year in order to implement and improve their plan for next year. Because 90% of growers are struck with the age old “that’s the way we’ve always done it” mentality.  And why are 90% stuck in that mentality, because 90% of growers still believe that the weather controls 100% of the outcome of the crop, and they are simply wrong. Let’s face it though, weather has a significant impact on the outcome of a crop. As recently as 2022 a group of researchers released a study underpinning the effects of climate on corn yields to 48%: read more here:  https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2113629119 . This study also concluded that 39% of yield potential was due to “agronomic improvements” and 13% of yield was from genetics, the infamous “G” in G M E = Yield equation. Right there you have it ladies and gentlemen, 52% of a crop’s yield is controlled by decisions that you and I make, not by the weather! So it’s time to stop procrastinating, and start planning for your farms 2025 profitability, by capturing every bushel of yield you can through agronomic improvements on your farm. So what can you do about it? Decide to create, execute, and debrief your plan for profitability in 2025. My commitment to you is if you decide to create a plan, I’ll help you do it, but don’t delay, my calendar is filling up, I only have enough time to work with a few more growers to create their Max Yield System plan for 2025 profitability. -Matt Long

Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Welcome to the EZ Ag podcast where innovative farming meets practical solutions before we dig into today’s topic, a quick shout out to say thank you to our listeners. Please take a moment to like and subscribe to the EZ Ag podcast so you never miss another episode. Now let’s get to it.  So getting into part two here on the MAX Yield System today, and we’re going to get into a little bit more detailed information about two of the key parts of the MAX Yield System. I want to back up real quick, and I want to talk just a little bit about what the MAX Yield System is and why we do it. Just a little reminder, in case you missed last week’s or this last podcast episode, the MAX Yield System is really a customizable approach to planning. The thing that I love about the MAX Yield System, you take that customizable approach to planning, you put it into action. What do you get back from it? Well, you have less stress, you have less uncertainty, you have more confidence in growing your farm, because you have a plan, you know where you’re going. It’s plan that can be updated each year and reused, and it’s not something that you have to start over from scratch every year on, you keep updating that plan, you keep adding little bits of improved management systems over time to that plan, and keep improving it as you go. When you do that, you have less stress, because you have less uncertainty about what needs to be done. It’s really clear, and that gives you more confidence to grow the farm when those opportunities come your way.  So today, we’re going to dial in. We’re going to talk a little bit more in depth about the crop plan and the seed plan. Like I said in the last episode, all four of these pieces are kind of going on at the same time. It’s hard to talk about all four of them at same time. So we’re going to dial in on these two today, and then in the next episode, we’ll dial into one or two of the others, fertility plan and crop protection plan. Those are pretty big detail pieces there, so we might have to break it out into two separate ones.  Let’s dive into the crop plan. This is really where you dial this plan in on a field by field basis. The reason that I want to dial the plan in on a field by field basis is there’s things about fields historically that change our current productivity of them. So when we dial it in on a field by field basis, we’re going to review your actual production histories, your APHs on the crops that you’re going to grow on that farm. Are you growing wheat and corn? Are you growing wheat, corn and milo? What’s your rotation there, and what’s your APHs of those crops? The reason we dial into that is because we need to be able to go in and say, okay, on a historic level, we’ve planted 15,000 population on our dry land corn, and we’re achieving 85 bushel per yield on field XYZ, and then go into another field on the farm. Maybe, this is a really productive field, we say, hey, we’ve been planting 16,000 population on this field and we’ve been growing 135 bushel corn on that. From that information, your APH, your long term yield averages, and then what you’ve been doing on a population side, we can set that bushels per 1000 plants goal on a field by field basis. It’s important to do this work field by field and not blanket across the farm because just like I said, there’s things in history about a farm that makes one field more particular or more productive than another, and so let’s do that work on a field by field basis. Let’s make sure that we know where we’re headed on each one of those fields, and set that goal of bushel per 1000 plants, field by field so that we can achieve the highest yields. The reason that setting that goal on field by field basis helps us achieve the highest yield is because we can turn around and we can select hybrids that fit that goal, that bushels per 1000 goal. Obviously, we have some hybrids that flex more than others. We have some hybrids that are more defensive than others, and when we use that information in our hybrid selection, then we end up placing the right hybrid on each field. Rolling right from the crop plan into the seed plan. Now we’re talking, we take that information, crop rotation, bushels per 1000 plants, goal and APHs out of that crop plan. We’re going to turn that into a seed plan, a hybrid by field plan. Anytime we’re doing a hybrid by field plan, we’ve got to think about something else in the back of our heads, and that is, what is our hybrid portfolio, or what does that hybrid portfolio look like? So you watch any of the financial indexes, the price of the Dow Jones is not determined by the value of one single stock. I think there’s 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. That’s why they call it an average. That’s a portfolio of 30 stocks. And while we’re not going to use 30 hybrids across the farm, we do want to make sure that we use a portfolio. The reason we use those portfolios, just like the reason those guys, in mutual funds and in the index funds, use portfolios, is because we’re going to mitigate the risk. You know, what is the risk out there? Well, the risk out there for us is always Mother Nature. We have no idea or no way to control how hot it’s going to be, how dry it’s going to be, how much rain we’re going to receive. We can’t control that, so we have to use that portfolio to mitigate that risk. Inside that portfolio, we’re going to use hybrids that have different strengths. We might use one hybrid that has really excellent drought and heat tolerance, but maybe its top end yield and its ear flex isn’t quite as good as another. We’re going to use another hybrid that has better ear flex. We might use a hybrid that has better pH or faster dry down, depending on the situation and what we want to get out of that field. And we use the portfolio across the farm, along with different planting dates, to mitigate risk at the highest level. So when you have a group of hybrids, you got a hybrid portfolio, you plant that portfolio over the planting window, you mitigate the risk as much as you possibly can out there. There’s always risk. We can’t overcome all of it, but we can do certain things to help overcome that. So let’s dial in that hybrid by field plan using a portfolio that fits the goals of the farm, and those hybrid by field recommendations are going to be based on the information that we pull out of the crop plan, the crop rotation, bushels per 1000, APHs, and that overall risk mitigation that we’re looking for, are we going to mitigate more risk or less and how do we put that into place?  So that’s all I’ve really got for today, like I said, we’re going to be dialing in information on the fertility plan and the crop protection plan over the next episode or two. We’ll see how long things go. Those can get pretty in depth, but we want to dial in those next two pieces of that MAX Yield System plan, and help you guys this winter, while you’ve got time to put those pieces into place so that next summer is less stressful, you have less uncertainty, and you have more confidence in the crop you’re growing and how you’re going to grow your farm.  That’s all for today. I’m Matt Long. Thanks for joining us on this episode of EZ Ag. Grow your yield. Grow your legacy. Grow strong with Axis Seed, thank you!

LISTEN ON SPOTIFY LISTEN ON APPLE Welcome to the EZ Ag podcast where innovative farming meets practical solutions. Before we dig into today’s topic, a quick shout out to say thank you to our listeners. Please take a moment to like and subscribe to the EZ Ag podcast so you never miss another episode. Now let’s get to it.  I wanted to start out today talking about a little series here for the next few episodes of the podcast about the MAX Yield System. We’ve talked about a couple components of the MAX Yield System already. A few weeks ago, we talked about soil sampling and how you use consistency to create better data in your soil sampling. Those soil samples are going to become part of the fertility plan in the MAX Yield System. Then we also talked about test plot data a couple weeks ago, and if we think about that test plot data, that’s going to help us in the MAX Yield System when we get to the seed plan, because we’re trying to build those hybrid portfolios, and we’re going to try to do that over multi year data coming out of those test plots.  I just want to back up real quick, though, and talk a little bit about the MAX Yield System. Go through each of the four key parts, talk about the pieces that are in those and why I love using the MAX Yield System for planning and different pieces that you can gather from it. Then over the next couple episodes, we’re going to break that down. We’re going to break down some of the pieces, some of those four key parts, into more detail as we go.  Probably the number one thing, or one of the top reasons that I like using the MAX Yield System with growers is because it’s a customizable approach to planning. Many things that we go through in life when you’re trying to create a plan, it’s you got to do this, and then you got to do this, and you got to do this, and you got to do this. One of the things that I know from the last decade or so in this business is I’ve got a lot of customers and a lot of successful customers, and not two of those customers get to that successful point the exact same way. Everybody’s got a little different challenge. They got different opportunities, different ways of handling those obstacles that are on their farm, whether that’s from an equipment standpoint, from a knowledge standpoint, from a risk standpoint, they just do things a little bit differently. But they’re all getting to that point where success is part of it. The MAX Yield System is a customizable approach. We have kind of some general guidelines of things we’re going to work within, but some of the specific details within those guidelines are different on a farm by farm basis, when we get that whole plan done.  The reason I think sometimes I get to talking about planning, and I get to talking about the MAX Yield System, and I have growers that almost just roll their eyes, like, why would you create a plan? Well, growers who create a plan, they make better decisions. 100% of the decisions that you make are not going to be made within the plan, but if we make a plan that we think covers 100% of decisions, we’re more likely going to use 80-90% of those decisions that we planned when we get to the field. If we’ve pre-made 80 or 90% of our decisions by creating a plan, we have very few decisions that we have to make on the fly, and we have very few decisions that we make in error, because we make better decisions when we have more time to make them. You make these plans far in advance to give you that time, and at the end of the day, those growers who really create a plan, I think they’re happier. They have less stress. They have more confidence in their ability to grow their farm when the opportunity arises, because they have a plan that they say, “Oh, look, I’ve got this opportunity to grow. All I have to do is copy and paste that plan onto this new piece of ground that I have the opportunity to rent or buy, and I already have knowledge of how that plan works for me over time.” Taking over new grounds almost always has some pitfalls to it, but when you have a plan going into that, you know where you’re going to work out those kinks and how you’re going to get through that. That’s why I like creating a plan. The MAX Yield System is very customizable.  I am going to quickly go into the four key parts of the MAX Yield System. We’ve got the crop plan, we’ve got the seed plan, we’ve got the fertility plan, and we have the crop protection plan. Really, you’re going to develop these four plans almost simultaneously or you could kind of go through them one at a time and develop each one. When you go to the field, all four of these plans are used simultaneously,so you kind of can start building them out simultaneously too. Let’s just talk real quick about some of the pieces of each one of those plans, and then we’ll let you guys go. We’ll do a deep dive into these over the next couple episodes.  The first key part of the MAX Yield System is the crop plan. Really, when you’re looking at the crop plan, you’re looking at simple things like crop rotation. On a field by field basis, this field’s in wheat, it’s going to corn, or this fields in corn, it’s going to Milo, or this field’s going to fallow, or things like that. You’re just looking at what crop rotation you have on a field by field basis. and then based on those crop rotations, and based on a review of your A PHS, a review of your historical yields, you’re going to set a goal, especially in corn. We want to set a goal in how many bushels per 1000 plants that we’re putting out there. We’re always recommending populations 13 to 17,000 on our dry land, say 20 to 28,000 on limited or fully irrigated corn. We want to really tie those populations back into this piece here, which is a bushel per 1000 plants goal. Okay, so that’s really what the crop plan is, it’s pretty basic for the crop plan.  Then we turn the page and we start working in the seed plan. Once we have identified what crop is going to go on each field, we’re going to identify what hybrid we’re going to put on each field, and we’re going to do that by using hybrid portfolios. The reason we use hybrid portfolios is to mitigate risk. But in the seed plan here, this is where we’re going to review data. We’re going to review yield history and bushel per 1000 history of hybrids that we’ve had on our farm, of hybrids that we’re looking at in test plots, and we’re going to develop that hybrid portfolio to mitigate that risk.  When we’re done with the seed plan, we’re going to turn the page to the fertility plan. This is why I say these things kind of go on simultaneously, because you could start the fertility plan before you even started the crop plan, as long as you know that you need to go out and do that soil sampling. Soil sampling is the first piece of the fertility plan. From those soil samples, we’re going to analyze the results. We’re going to make decisions based on our bushels per 1000 goal that we made up there in the crop plan, we’re going to make decisions based on our seed plan, what hybrid we’re placing on that field and we’re going to use that information from the crop plan, the seed plan, along with the soil sample, to create that fertility plan. Then kind of building out this other side of our business, biologicals, foliars, micronutrients, we’re going to start looking at that fertility plan and saying what other pieces make sense in there? We’ll talk about this a lot more in depth when we get to the part where we go into the fertility plan but over fertilizing, in my opinion, can burn up a crop faster than having the right rate out there. How do you know what the right rate is? Well, that takes a lot of time, a lot of effort, dialing those things in on that fertility plan, and we gotta ground that in our soil sampling.  The last piece, here we’ve got this crop protection plan. We’re going to evaluate the weed issues that we may have on a field by field basis, so that when we’re kind of doing that, blanket apply on the farm with this product or that product we have in the back of our head, “okay, this field, this field, and this field, they have a weed issue that we don’t see on other parts of the farm.” We need to overcome that weed issue in our crop protection plan. A big piece of the crop protection plan is herbicide, but fungicides, insecticides are part of that crop protection plan. The whole crop protection plan is based on that bushels per 1000 plants goal, we can’t just be out there using fungicides and insecticides when we don’t need to, to achieve our goal out there. We also want to create the highest ROI along the way too. We understand that you create more ROI by growing more bushel, a lot faster than you do by cutting expenses, but we want to make sure that it still makes sense what we’re putting into these plans.  So like I said earlier, I like using this approach because it’s customizable. We go through it with growers on a field by field basis. We create these plans. And one of the things that I love about MAX Yield System planning is that the plans never die. They don’t just end at the end of the season. You can reuse a lot of that information from your MAX Yield System plan in your next year’s plan. When you turn the page on that crop rotation to the next crop on that field, you can just update those a little bit each year based on new hybrids, based on new crop protection and new fertility plans, and kind of make those little updates each year and keep using it and keep reusing it. Probably the first year of going through MAX Yield System planning, maybe the first and second year of going through that approach is where you really invest a lot of time in it, and after that, you’re just going through updating the little bits of information along the way and moving into the next year. When you do that, like I said, less stress, more confidence and happier. Who doesn’t like doing that? That’s all for today. I’m Matt Long. Thanks for joining us on this episode of EZ Ag, Grow your Yield. Grow your Legacy. Grow Strong with Axis Seed.

Welcome to the EZ Ag podcast where innovative farming meets practical solutions. Before we dig into today’s topic, a quick shout out to say thank you to our listeners. Please take a moment to like and subscribe to the EZ Ag podcast so you never miss another episode. Now let’s get to it.  Good morning, everyone. What I wanted to talk to you about today a little bit, was plot data, So there’s always this big focus throughout the year, especially throughout the selling part of the season, on plot data. Do you have any, do you have any yields, do you have any information about those products. I take plot data pretty seriously. We do a lot of testing in the field on these hybrids so that we can develop or enhance our product portfolios as the years go on. And so just wanted to share with you a little bit of information about that testing program and about some of the information that we’re getting back.  We really took an intensive look at how to test these products this year, and so trying to look at all of our commercial and all of our experimental products, for yield, for pH, for drought tolerance and for ear flex. The way we did that was, we set up our test plots so that we could see those things. Drought obviously takes Mother Nature’s cooperation there to get the drought response that we need to see. But luckily, this year, we had plenty of drought conditions, and got some really good ratings on drought tolerance on our hybrids ear flex. We set that trial up on an irrigated basis, fully irrigated with full fertility, and then planted four different populations in that field, ranging from 10,000 to 32,500 to see how much ear flex we could get out of these hybrids. And then pH, we went into a really hot pH spot in a growers field, and we planted every hybrid in that pH spot so that we could go out there and take those visual ratings. Then at the end of the year, take those ear size ratings to see how that pH, or that high pH was affecting those hybrids. Pretty, pretty excited about some of the results that we’re seeing, because we really feel like, after one year’s testing with a big group of experimental hybrids, we’ve got some, some really nice products to bring back into next year’s testing and likely release in your fields, in 2026. In most of our full season trials there that we harvested for yield out of that flex plot, we’re seeing that we have five, six, maybe seven, brand new experimental releases coming in at the top of those plots. Then we look at our commercial hybrids, and we’ve got a pretty tight group of commercial hybrids yielding together. Some of the top numbers, 62K69, 63F60, 66F54 we really think these are good, solid bases to build off of. They’re good, consistent performers, and they’re products that we have a little bit of background on. These new products that really kind of knocked our socks off on the yield, none of them have a root worm trait. We’re looking at, is it the rootworm trait that is actually limiting some of our yield potential there, and is there a way that we can use those products in a continuous corn environment when they’re not traited for it? Also looking at, was there other management factors that contributed to these high yields? We’re going to expand our testing a little bit next year, we’re gonna bring back these top products to put into those test plots. We’re gonna be out there every week in the field, scouting those and making ratings on them, so that when we do release them into your farm in 2026 we know where to place those products and what to expect from their performance. It really takes a little bit of time and a little bit more effort, I feel like, to get that consistency, or to have the confidence that we’re going to get that consistency when we put those products in the field. So one year testing, really exciting to see there. We’re going to take that, we’re going to put that into multi year data by testing those same products another year, and then we’re going to use those products that shine year after year to enhance our product portfolios and increase yield on your farms. We’re not chasing winners year after year, drop the products we have to go with just the top ones in the plot, because we know that the factors that Mother Nature influences there can take the winner and make it the loser next year. We’re not going to chase those winners. We’re going to make sure that we have some multi-year data on those and then we’re going to enhance those product portfolios with those products that shine year over year. There’s really no silver bullet in this hybrid performance piece, and that’s why we really look at the portfolio of products that we can place. From the full season standpoint, like I said, some of the big performers, 62K69, 63F60, 66F54 and 62B56. In the more mid season on those irrigated plots, really seeing a brand new number 59V44 come out the gate really strong, liking to see that and 59L59 a number that we’ve been familiar with for a few years did really well as well. Keeping those in the mix with some of our other fuller season hybrids there. That’s all I’ve got for you today, just taking a quick look at this test plot data and kind of thinking through how we use it to enhance that portfolio. As we move forward, you’ll be seeing a lot of these plot results come out from us here in the next few weeks, and we’re excited to share them with you. We’re excited to see the potential that we have as we move forward here with Axis Seed. That’s all for today, I’m Matt Long, thanks for joining us on this episode of EZ Ag. Grow your yield. Grow your legacy. Grow strong with Axis Seed.

Family Activities for the Holiday Season – November 4th The holiday season is always a favorite of mine, and with Thanksgiving and Christmas just around the corner, I’m already planning activities that I would like to do as a family, many of my favorites revolve around the outdoors and food! Here’s a few things on my list that might be worth considering over the next couple months if they aren’t already on yours. Cook a great meal! Yep that’s right I like food as much or more than anything else, and why not share a great meal with family this time of year. Some of my favorite dishes are Prime Rib – I have been known to cook 3-6 Prime Rib each year for different family and community gatherings. Frog-Eye-Salad – the name makes it sound both gross and healthy, and it’s neither! Shrimp Cocktail – I’m big on finger foods as I graze my way through the holidays and shrimp cocktail is one of my favorites. If you haven’t made homemade cocktail sauce, I’d strongly suggest it. Four simple ingredients, Ketchup, Lemon Juice, Worcestershire Sauce, and Horseradish is all it takes! Go Outdoors! My favorite outdoors activities happen to be hunting and what better time of year to hunt than when there’s no mosquitos. Upland game is my favorite, Pheasant out west, and Quail when I’m back east at the in-laws. Best part is the fresh air and getting out of the house! I’ve been known to come home empty handed with only a good “armed walk” to show but spending time outdoors is always great this time of year. Stuffing the Stockings! When I grew up digging through our stockings was almost as much of an event as opening our presents on Christmas morning. Now I enjoy stuffing them! Some of the items are based in family tradition, like a collectible silver dollar coin, but most of the fun in a stocking is candy and lottery tickets! Don’t forget the necessities, combs, chapstick, toothbrushes, and the like have always filled out the rest of the stocking so it’s brim full! Cheers to planning out a great holiday season with your family! ~Matt Long