A pilot “yield guarantee” program for cereal growers who use Syngenta Crop Protection’s Cruiser Maxx seed treatment will run again in 2009.
The company announced Friday that it will again offer “limited” participation in what it calls the Cruiser Maxx Cereals Yield Guarantee Program. This year’s program will run between April 1 and Nov. 1.
“We’re so confident that Cruiser Maxx Cereals offers a (return on investment) that we’re prepared to offer a refund if this yield increase is not met,” seed care sales manager Colin Bletsky said in a release.
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Qualifying cereal growers from Western Canada who are accepted into the program are required to plant at least 160 acres of wheat or barley, with a minimum of 10 acres of untreated seed and the rest with seeds treated with Cruiser Maxx Cereals.
The yields from the treated and untreated areas will be harvested separately, the company said, using a yield monitor or weigh wagon to measure the results.
Syngenta stipulates that participating growers will see a minimum yield increase of 1.5 bushels per acre with the Cruiser Maxx-treated seeds compared to the untreated seeds.
Any participating grower who doesn’t get at least that much of a yield increase would be reimbursed for the cost of the Dividend XL RTA portion of the Cruiser Maxx Cereals seed treatment, up to a maximum of $5,000.
During the program’s pilot run in 2008, the company said nine of 10 participants saw yield increases greater than the 1.5 bu./ac. minimum.
