After years of plot tests and full-field, on-farm research, Planet Earth Agronomy officially launched Satchur8™. With its origin in human healthcare, the product is poised to help farmers make the most of every drop of chemistry they apply.
“This will assure that more farmers across the country can benefit from the unique properties of this product and make the most of every pass through the field and every gallon of liquid herbicide, insecticide and fungicide they apply,” said Larry Fiene, Planet Earth Agronomy Founder and CEO at the announcement. He said wide testing of the product has brought a better understanding of SATCHUR8’s full potential for a profitable impact for farmers.
We know farmers are being very careful with their crop input dollars these days and we wanted to be sure it was going to work as consistently as it did in our early trials,” Fiene says. “We had great weed control right off the bat in our burndown applications and as we studied it, we saw other advantages.”
Originally developed as an aid for fighting cancer in human healthcare, the formula has the exceptional characteristic of keeping active ingredients in place to increase their efficacy. In the case of fighting cancer, it assisted in holding chemotherapy agents at the site of the malignancy. For herbicides, fungicides and insecticides needing contact to do their work, this unique property means keeping the chemistry intact longer on the plant, assuring full impact.
“The power of SATCHUR8 is in its trillions of little microfibers that stick to the leaf service like Velcro when applied and hold the herbicide it’s mixed with on the leaf surface,” Fiene explains. “It won’t wash off and won’t dry up and blow off the surface. Residual weed control is lasting longer because the active ingredient is being retained in the soil upper profile longer.”
Fiene lists three big benefits from Satchur8 he’s seen across years of field research:
- Extends the residual weed control of pre-emerge herbicides applications, by keeping the active ingredient in the soil upper profile longer. “The SATCHUR8 tank mix application lasted four to six weeks longer than the standard herbicide application.”
- Improves burndown applications by adhering the active ingredient intact on the leaf for a longer period of time for greater efficacy. “Those little microfibers stick to the leaf service so well that Cornell University research showed that SATCHUR8 held 40 to 50 percent more active ingredient on the leaf surface after repeated rainfall events.”
- Boosts fungicide efficacy by allowing the leaf to breathe and continue normal metabolism, when compared to surfactants that impede the uptake of the active ingredient. “Many products act more like a varnish on the leaf, and the active is stuck on and unable to move freely. Allowing the leaf to breath means better translocation and protection for the crop.”
Planet Earth is choosing to launch SATCHUR8 nationally only after positive results in pilot partner programs with Conserv FS, with grower-customers in Illinois, and Willard Agri-Service LLC, serving Mid-Atlantic growers across six eastern states. Fiene says on-farm performance went far beyond expectations for effective burndown applications. “As our partners used it more widely, what was really impressive for us is how it made every product in every tank mix work better,” he says.
Dave Geils, who raises corn, soybeans and wheat near Harvard, Ill., was among those who experienced the benefit early and has gone “all-in” on SATCHUR8, using it for pre-emerge, post-emerge and in-season fungicide applications.
“We have been 100 percent since we started using it,” says Geils. He’s convinced the product is earning its keep on his acres. “It’s part of the mix because it increases the efficacy and longevity of the products we apply. It’s a very inexpensive product that makes all the other things work the way they need to.”
Willard Agri-Service, LLC is offering SATCHUR8 to their customers only after several years of testing in their Farm Performance System (FPS), a comprehensive portfolio of tools, products, and services backed by their local expertise as a three-generation crop input provider.
Mike Twining, Willard Vice President of Innovation, says SATCHUR8 is a great example of Willard’s FPS can mean to farmers. “When we avoid re-sprays, that’s real money,” he flatly states. “And it’s real money going back into the pockets of our farmer customers. I can tell you without reservation what we experienced last year was that where we used SATCHUR8 in historically tough weed control scenarios, our number of spray passes dropped by over 50 percent.”
For more information visit www.Satchur8makeseverydropcount.com.
