We Know Inoculant

You’re faced with making tough decisions everyday - decisions that have a profound impact on your farm’s profitability. At Viterra, we have the agronomic expertise you can rely on. Our team is ready to work with you to help you make the right decision about which inoculant to apply.
 
We work with the leading inoculant suppliers to offer the best products to improve the quality of your crop.

Why inoculate?

Inoculating can increase yields and lower your fertilizer costs.  Legume inoculation is the process of introducing sources of rhizobia bacteria to promote nitrogen fixation in plants. Legumes have the unique ability to use rhizobia bacteria to convert atmospheric nitrogen into a usable form of nitrogen. This relationship occurs in root tissue called nodules. Within legume nodules, the nitrogen gas that is converted into ammonia is then assimilated by the plant to form cellular requirements for the plant.

The remaining nitrogen left by inoculated legumes can help boost yields and lower fertilizer costs when used in a rotation for corn or small grains in an environmentally safe manner.

When should inoculant be used?

Inoculant product should be used when there is reason to believe that soil populations of rhizobia are low or the native rhizobia are no longer extremely effective.

With traditional inoculant products, each legume species requires a specific species and strain of rhizobia. The rhizobia bacteria are usually produced, stored, and delivered in liquid format, or granular peat or clay.

Examples of expected rhizobia deficiencies:*

• Soil that has not hosted the specific legume.
• Soil that has not hosted the specific legume for more than 4 years.
• Soil pH of less than 5.8. (The pH should be adjusted by liming prior to inoculation.)
• Soil pH of more than 8.5.
• Soil organic matter of less than 1%.
• Drought or flooding.
• Topsoil conditions exceed 26° C.
• Soil erosion.
• Use of soil treatments and chemicals.

*courtesy of Becker Underwood.