Annawan, IL: When it comes to choosing a seed brand, grower Rob DeFauw has found customer support to be as important as technology. That’s why he continues to choose Golden Harvest® Corn year in and year out.

“If I have a question or concern, I can call, text or email, and the support team usually gets back to me within the hour,” DeFauw said. “They are there all year, and also help me walk fields, letting me know if they see a problem.”

In addition to farming with his father-in-law, Rob DeFauw stays active as the Henry County (IL) Farm Bureau Director.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt when the product performs as well as DeFauw’s Golden Harvest hybrids have, even in an up-and-down year like 2016.

“We got in the fields 1 to 2 weeks earlier than last year, but we also had some gullywasher rains,” DeFauw said. “We were very impressed with the stalk quality. We haven’t had any ear rot or white mold disease issues, either.”

Golden Harvest hybrid G07F23-3111 brand is a favorite of DeFauw’s. Because of its good drydown, DeFauw said he feels confident taking the 107-day hybrid straight from the field to his local ethanol plant without concern about getting docked for high moisture at the elevator. And because it’s equipped with the Agrisure Viptera® trait, he also had protection against above-ground insect pressure.

“When we started using minimum- and strip-tillage practices, we also started using Agrisure Viptera so we wouldn’t worry about black cutworms or corn earworm,” DeFauw said.

He further helped his corn reach its potential by applying Acuron® corn herbicide, which has four active ingredients and three modes of action for multi-targeted control of the toughest broadleaf weeds.

“We were looking for something different this year, so we went with Acuron,” DeFauw said. “We want to keep our fields clean and stay ahead of (resistance) – and we were super happy with the herbicide.”

All photos are the property of Syngenta or used with permission.