Over the last 20 years, BASF fungicides have protected an estimated 30 billion bushels and 260 million acres of corn and soybeans. As commodity prices and environmental pressures increasingly factor into farmer decision-making, only an estimated 45% of corn and soybean acres were protected by fungicide applications in 2024. As a result, BASF is launching its largest yield challenge ever, the Real Results Yield Challenge, providing farmers and their local retailers greater access and support to stage yield trials with Veltyma®, Revytek® and Revylok™ fungicides across all key geographies.
Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays got to chat with BASF’s Senior Technical Marketing Manager Albre Brown about the Real Results Yield Challenge.
“If you have been using our products in the past, you have become used to that high level performance,” Brown said. “We still want people to have that option to participate, so in order to participate, they would only have to put a skip in their fields to see the difference in the performance there. “
The grower would take photos of the skip and return the yield benefits to show the difference between their untreated side of the field and their treated side of the field. The untreated potion can be as small as a single row of crops.
Even growers who have never tried BASF products before can participate in the Yield Challenge. Brown encouraged comparing the other fungicides that growers might be using with the results of BASF products.
“In 2025, we want to encourage growers to protect their soybean acres with our performance-driven fungicides by participating in the Real Results Yield Challenge to see at the difference that product makes for themselves,” Brown urged.
In previous comparisons, BASF fungicides have outperformed competing brands eight out of ten times and outperformed untreated acres nine out of ten times. “This is a really strong, consistent return on a grower’s investment,” Brown said. “When you choose to apply a BASF fungicide preventatively, you are going to get season-long residual activity, controlling disease, and then ultimately, at the end of the season, that will increase the bushels per acre. Right now, with low commodity prices, every bushel counts.”
She detailed how much the Veltyma fungicide application can mitigate the effects of tar spot, which is on the rise in corn in the Midwest. It also protects against southern rust, northern corn leaf blight, southern corn leaf blight, and gray leaf spot. Applying the product next to a skipped row with no application is a clear way to see the benefits of Veltyma.
Once a field is infected, the residue remains in the field, awaiting the right environmental conditions to make a comeback. “So, by applying Veltyma this year, you are going to get protection for years to come,” Brown asserted. “It is a long-term integrated pest management strategy that you have to apply when treating these key corn diseases, and soybean diseases, too.”
Participants in the Real Results Yield Challenge will be able to experience the results and benefits of BASF performance-driven fungicides in their own fields while comparing the results against their current approach. Farmers interested in participating in the Real Results Yield Challenge are encouraged to contact their BASF authorized retailer or local BASF representative.
