Agronomy

Seed

Choosing the right seed can change the trajectory of an entire growing season.

Agronomy Services

From seed and chemical to soil testing and field scouting, Key Cooperative has a full service agronomy solution for your farm.

Precision Ag

Whether you’re a beginner or advanced, there’s a place for you at Key Cooperative.

Meet the Team

Our knowledgeable team of Agronomists and CENTROL Precision Ag specialists are here to assist from plant, to harvest, and beyond.

Agronomy at Key Cooperative

During long periods of low grain prices, managing input costs can mean the difference between an annual profit, and a loss. Our team of professional agronomists at Key Cooperative is in an excellent position to help you determine where to invest in your crop, and where you might be able to save some money.

From seed selection to fertilizer application rates, a knowledgable agronomist can help boost your chances of growing profitable corn and soybeans. With access to data on thousands of acres showing which practices are likely to make you money, and which might not—from the economics of planting cover crops, to whether or not it pays to apply a fungicide.

We can also help you take precision ag practices on your farm to the next level, which helps minimize costly mistakes—like planting more seed than necessary and over-applying fertilizer—while maximizing plant performance through services such as soil testing, tissue sampling and field scouting using twenty-first century technology.

MEET THE TEAM

Seed

Seed selection is one of the best places to hold the line on planting expenses while mitigating risk in your fields. It doesn’t make sense to pay for corn hybrids stacked with traits you don’t need. It also doesn’t make sense to plant racehorse hybrids on land that is better suited to a workhorse—or a mule. You might be able to skip a fungicide application by planting corn hybrids and soybean varieties that are rated highly for disease resistance.

Our agronomists spend hours pouring over local yield data on thousands of acres of crop land. They can help you select hybrids and varieties that are most likely to perform under tillage practices, soil types and growing conditions just like those found on the acres you farm.

Crop Nutrition

Key Cooperative offers a wide range of dry and liquid fertilizers, anhydrous ammonia, micronutrients, nitrogen protection and soil amendments.

Anhydrous Ammonia
Urea – 46-0-0 (full lineup of nitrogen stabilizers that we treat in-house, such as; Agrotain Advanced, Instinct II, Nutrisphere)
ESN – 44-0-0 (slow-release nitrogen)
MAP – 11-52-0
Potash – 0-0-60
MESZ – 12-40-0-10S-1Zn
AMS – 21-0-0-24S

Dry Micronutrients (90% Elemental Sulfur, Zinc Sulfate, Boron, Calcium, etc.)
98G (pelletized lime)
S04 (pelletized gypsum)
Ag Lime
32-0-0
30-0-0-3S
12-0-0-26S
10-34-0
OptiStart Plus – 9-15-4-3S-.5Zn-.05Mn

Insecticides, Herbicides and Fungicides

Crop Protection

We can help you select the products you need

When our agronomists make a crop protection recommendation, it isn’t based on a hunch, a gut-feeling or to earn a commission. It’s based on data, and experience. We also see what’s working and not working on thousands of acres around each of our agronomy locations, and we bring that knowledge to bear on the conversations we have with our customers.

If we can save you some money, we will. And if a crop protection product might help you produce a better crop, we’ll make a recommendation from one of the reputable companies below:

Helping you select the technology you need

The right tool for the job

Most of our member-owners are already practicing some principles of precision ag in their current operations, including soil testing, variable rate fertilizer applications or field mapping. When it’s time to step up to the next level, however, you need an advisor who’s been there before…someone who can recommend exactly what you need, and then show you how to use it. That’s what the CENTROL Precision Ag team at Key Cooperative does. Working as part of your agronomy team, we can help you get the most out of the precision equipment you purchase, and avoid costly purchasing mistakes.

LEARN MORE

TRUTERRA™

TRUTERRA™ takes stewardship in the food system to the next level

A program by farmers, for farmers

By establishing clear metrics and a common language for conservation that is meaningful for farmers and their core customers – food companies and end consumers - we can all work together to drive meaningful and scalable impact.

Truterra was launched in 2018 by Land O’Lakes SUSTAIN to drive on-farm conservation solutions at scale—creating tangible impact on the long-term sustainability of our food system. Built with farmers in mind by a leading national farmer-owned cooperative, Truterra is available to companies and stakeholders interested in scaling on-farm conservation solutions and driving sustainability in an ever-changing industry.