Saginaw Bay Area - Michigan | Jackrabbit - 2/22/2026 15:19
You say inoculant almost never pays even when the data showed a positive ROI. Not a great one but if you aren't spending stupid money on expensive inoculants the ROI should be decent. I'll still take a half bushel if the cost is only $2.
I'm only summarizing the report. Their average was $0.81 net gain over their multiple fields and years. Some years there was a significant negative cost to it based on their data.
I don't see in the report if they considered related costs for applying it. If the farmer is applying it or if it's pretreated. Also don't see if there's cost with downtime due to plugged seed tubes on the planter or if cost of talc/etc is required when using the products vs not.
We used to apply it ourselves when loading each hopper, so our labor and related overhead added up to a small cost, which would include the extra time to open the bag, pour it on, put the bag back, etc. That would eat into the $0.81 pretty quickly, even though it's pretty minor in the big picture.
I've always looked at it being more important when planting earlier or into less optimal conditions, but I don't see that playing out in the report.
|
Soybean research
