Now that planting is wrapping up for the area and crops are emerging very well, it’s safe to assume the vast majority of crops, corn and beans were planted using treated seeds.

Whether using a neonicotinoid or fungal treatment, or a combination of both, you should carefully consider the benefit of these for your operation.

On average these treatments cost about $13/acre and have been advertised by the seed companies to increase yield by 2 to 3 bushels/acre. But most university and ARS studies have concluded little to no economic gain.

Secondly, the window of protection is only about three weeks and doesn’t protect against soybean aphid, which can do the most damage to crops.

Most of the more common seedling and seed pests — wireworm, grubs and seed corn maggot — really don’t reach economic thresholds to justify seed protection.

Slugs, being immune to seed treatment chemicals, feed freely on commodity crops ingesting the chemical. Then when a natural predator, ground beetles, attack the slug, they in turn ingest the insecticide, killing the predator.

These seed treatments also have inadvertent consequences on noncropped areas, since the seeds are coated with talc powder and the planter dust can blow off site and affect nontarget species, including many beneficials such as honey bees.

While seed companies promote a minuscule 1 percent increase in yield from seed treatments, research study after research study has documented introducing a bee colony to a soybean field can increase yield 10 percent to 30 percent. Research in Australia shows a 40 percent increase and Brazil showed a 50 percent bump.

Unfortunately we are inadvertently killing off the beneficials that can have the biggest impact on yield for technology that costs more to use and shows little to no benefit.

Nitrogen tests

Corn is aggressively growing and it will soon be time to begin side-dressing and it’s always a good idea to utilize a chlorophyll meter or a Pre-sidedress Nitrate Soil Test to determine the proper amount of nitrogen your crop needs.

The Butler County Conservation District has a Chlorophyll meter available for rent and is the easiest and fastest way to determine fertilizer need.

The meter will give you an average reading, some calculations to transfer that data into pounds of nitrogen needed, and you can have a recommendation.

Alternatively, you can take a soil test using Penn State’s Pres-sidedress Nitrogen Test, which looks at the nitrogen available in the soil and makes recommendations. This is very similar to a regular soil test and costs about the same.

Regardless of the method used, performing a nitrogen test and applying nitrogen between the six and eight leaf stage is the most economical and environmentally friendly way to do so.

Weather, prior crops and soil conditions all can have an impact on nitrogen availability and applying a crop’s yearly supply of nitrogen preplant can have huge economic impacts.

If you’d like to rent the conservation district’s chlorophyll meter, contact their office at 724-284-5270.

Andy Gaver is a conservationist with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Butler County.