The threat of Asian Soybean Rust 20 years ago launched BASF’s investigation into Headline fungicide for soybeans. The big lesson learned was the plant health benefits seen with fungicides. It quickly became evident farmers shouldn’t wait until they see crop disease before they apply a fungicide. BASF Vice President of Agricultural Solutions Scott Kay advised farmers to be proactive, not reactive. At the BASF Science Behind 2025 event, BASF research showed “after 19 days, that might be the first time that you start to see it and yet the disease has been at work those whole 19 days.” BASF researchers confirmed by the time disease symptoms are seen on the plant, a lot of the damage is done. Even with the success of performance driven fungicides, only 45 percent of corn and soybean acres were treated with any fungicide last year. BASF has launched its largest fungicide trial called the Real Results Yield Challenge to prove its preventative and curative disease control. “We’ll roll that out to our retailers over the next week,” said Kay. “If we can set up those side-by-side (field trials), we want to create that field-level environment so farmers can get a good look at it in hopes that they’ll start to adopt.” Hear the full interview with Scott Kay.
