Biologicals have become the ‘hot’ topic in crop production. Over 1,200 companies are operating in the biological space, including NEXTA Biologicals from Pioneer. District Lead Ryan Schnoes said biologicals have the potential to be a $30-to-$40 billion business segment. In addition, farmers are looking for solutions in their fields. “If you’ve ever driven past a corn field where you farm, you can go from, wow, it looks tremendous, and ten days later, you just know that you took the top end off of it and almost see it go backwards,” said Schnoes. “What can farmers do to help slow down that summer decline? That’s where NEXTA Biologicals come into play and can help growers reduce that level of stress, which is going to help them protect more of the yield potential.” Schnoes believes the skepticism over biologicals remains today. However, that is changing. “We’re conducting what we believe is the largest field-scale biological testing ever done, so we can better understand not if biologicals work, but where and why they work best.”
