Digital platform benefits growers

BLOOMINGTON – Before the craziness of planting season sets in, farmers are advised to enter information into a digital platform to stay organized heading into another year.

Now is the time to sit down, make a plan for spring and keep track of the products purchased for a particular field.

“There are many platforms out there and there are a lot of good ones,” said Cody Pettit, field agronomist for Pioneer in east central Illinois. “It can sometimes be a very intimidating thought process to go through and put all of your acres into a digital platform.”

Granular is an easy, efficient and user friendly digital option to help growers plan for spring. As planting windows seem to shorten, this organizes information for the year. Accounts can be set up at www.granular.ag or by downloading the Granular Insights app.

In the coming years, Pioneer is expected to release a higher volume of products and hybrids.

“That is basically because we brought in the Qrome technology which has allowed us to use a lot more of our germ plasm that we’ve had previously just kind of sitting there on the shelves,” Pettit noted.

Pettit expects new products to start trickling in slowly since the company has such a solid lineup. Pioneer has a couple of mid-season products coming to market next year which have showed more stability and a yield advantage over Pioneer 1197 corn. That particular corn has been a company staple in recent years.

“These products are not making 1197 look bad but they’re making 1197 look old,” Pettit added.

The new company offerings are expected to have better roots and stalk quality.