Farmers are always looking for an advantage, and in one specialized market one company touts its seed treatment process to put money in the pockets of durum wheat growers.
Yalos is a bio-inoculant product from Lavie Bio and uses artificial intelligence to release microbiome-based ag-biological products.
Recent trials have shown an average yield increase of 7.1% in durum wheat fields. The company has a goal to add its treatment to winter wheat, soybeans and canola in the future. The company recently announced it was going to be making its product available to growers for the 2024-25 season.
Proven product
Russel Putland, executive vice president of commercial operations and North American general manager of Lavie Bio, said the Yalos inoculant is proven because of its vigor as well as its root and shoot development. Yalos can help improve nutrient availability, he added. Putland said Lavie Bio’s goal is to help farmers to reduce crop abandonment rates in winter wheat and increase productivity through advanced biological technologies.
“Two microbes are designed to help the plant to efficiently take up nutrients,” Putland said. “The microbes can help increase phosphate, sulfur and iron availability.”
It also improves microbe establishment in the root zone and enhances early plant growth and root branching, according to the company. Wheat is a crop that often gets stressed, and having strong roots and shoots gives it the best opportunity to deal with drought and disease pressure.
Putland, who has many years of experience in working with farmers, said what he likes about Lavie Bio’s approach has been its commitment to listening to growers.
He remembers a conversation he had at one time with a farmer from Minnesota who reminded Putland that companies not only need to provide data, but as a grower he needed to believe in the data. The farmer’s answer was right, Putland said, adding that the integrity of the data is essential.
“Farmers can only check it out by digging deeper and being curious,” he said as the Lavie Bio team stresses its willingness to answer producer questions.
In the early years, other companies that sold biologicals were short on data, and instead they focused on marketing, which was short-sighted, Putland said.
Working methodically
Lavie Bio’s approach has been to work methodically and literally take a field-by-field approach to help make sure growers have confidence in their results.
Today’s farmers are also in tune with soil health, and they are concerned about chemicals that might over time face resistance. At one time those chemicals provided production breakthroughs for farmers, but herbicide resistance has also crept up.
Growers need options, and they can use traditional practices and biologicals for producing grain.
Farmers need to be able to make a profit, Putland said. He believes that farmers know if yields are decreasing, they need to make changes.
“From a production standpoint, we have to employ a sensible approach to moving toward more biologicals because it’s better for our sustainability and our children’s future,” Putland said.
The company offered a rebate program for 2024 for red spring wheat, durum and barley growers. The company offered a rebate of 20 acres when growers purchased 160 acres of Yalos and 40 acres when they purchased 240 acres of the product, Putland said. The company, in its incentive offer, said the product returns an average of 4 bushels per acre in additional yield.
For more information visit www.lavie-bio.com.
Dave Bergmeier can be reached at 620-227-1822 or [email protected].
Field trial results
During the successful field trials, Yalos has demonstrated enhanced early vigor, biomass, root and shoot development, nutrient availability and feed quality in winter wheat. Yalos aims to reduce crop abandonment rates and increase farm productivity through advanced biological technologies.
In addition, Lavie Bio is expecting to expand Yalos into other key crops, such as soybeans and canola, with ongoing field trials in North America and an expected commercial launch in 2025. The U.S. soybean market size is estimated by Lavie Bio at approximately $56.2 billion in 2024.
Lavie Bio utilizes a proprietary computational predictive platform, the BDD platform, powered by Evogene’s proprietary MicroBoost AI tech-engine, harnessing the power of big data, artificial intelligence and advanced informatics for the discovery, optimization and development of bio-stimulant and bio-pesticide products.
Yalos is a water dispersible granule and is to be applied as a seed treatment.
