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Home › Products › Rhizo-Kote® XL › Rhizo-Kote®XL To The Test » CelPril Put Rhizo-KoteXL To The Test

CelPril® Put Rhizo-KoteXL® To The Test







Try as we may...not everyone is convinced that alfalfa seed coated with Rhizo-Kote XL performs “as good as or better than uncoated seed” when planted at a pound for pound rate with preinoculated seed. Planting alfalfa seed coated with Rhizo-Kote XL at the same seeding rate means you are actually planting 1/3rd less seed.

But planting a third less seed just doesn’t seem to make sense to a lot of seedsmen...much less to your farm customers.

CelPril knows that Rhizo-Kote XL will perform...but we wanted you to know too. That’s why in the spring of 1996, CelPril and one of its seed coating customers co-sponsored a series of actual side by side, in-field growth and yield trial tests pitting several otherwise identical alfalfas taken from the same lots, 50% coated... 50% uncoated... against one another.

The trials were followed closely...from spring planting to emergence to spring stand counts...through first and second cuttings to fall stand counts. The results were consistent:


Rhizo-Kote XL coated seed...planted at the same seeding rate per acre...showed an average of 9% more plants per acre than uncoated seed in the telling fall stand counts. Additionally, growth vigor, yield and protein contents were monitored with equally encouraging results.

But don’t take our word for it. We want you to meet Evansville, MN dairyman, Roger Elliott and his wife Agnes. Roger’s background is pretty impressive...as is the Elliot dairy operation. Roger is a University of Minnesota Farm Cooperator--Dairy Demonstration Farm, President of The Dairy Herd Improvement Association, Vice President of the Douglas-Pope Forage Council, Ashby Equity Coop Board of Directors, the 1996 Outstanding Grassland Award winner--Minnesota Forage and Grassland Council...and is a member of the Douglas County Water and Resource Management Commission. His wife and farming partner, Agnes, also serves on the Douglas County Extension Committee. Roger conducts on farm forage production tests every summer. Roger knows what he’s doing. His words speak volumes.

"You could see the difference in weed control in the field. With the heavier stands we got from the coated seed, we saw fewer weeds. I had always heard that if you plant one third less seed you would get one third less stand, but we got equal to or more plants per square foot. Then...we got the yields to prove it too. I had never been a believer in coated seed but I am now. We chopped our alfalfa and weighed the loads. The yield on the alfalfa that was coated with Rhizo-Kote XL was 882 lbs. per acre more than the uncoated and had 2% higher protein. I wasn’t prepared for that! We’ll be doing more testing next year to see if we can notice a long term trend."

Never one to be satisfied, Roger Elliott, who is already achieving 6-plus ton per acre farm average alfalfa yields...and is shooting for 9 tons...is conducting innovative comparison tests in 1997, using thelatest Rockwell VISION SystemTM GPS technology to pinpoint yield and growth characteristics of six different alfalfa configurations, including coated, uncoated, Phytophthora resistant varieties, insect resistant varieties, etc. Soil types, soil nutrients, topography AND alfalfas will be evaluated.
Roger Elliott, Evansville, MN, worked with Rockwell engineers to develop the first GPS alfalfa yield monitor, allowing him to record geo referenced yield information on the go.


Rockwell and the VISION System are trademarks of Rockwell
RhizoKote is a Trademark of CelPril
last updated: Thursday, November 15, 2007