An exciting and rewarding planting season await farmers because DuPont Pioneer is ready with a complete plant package for this summer’s planting season.

At NAMPO, Emile van den Berg, National Agricultural Manager, and his team informed the farmers thoroughly about the splendid cultivars grown with so much care over recent years. The registration process is finally completed, and now farmers can enjoy the excellent results.

White maize

“For the eastern production region we have two new cultivars, P1659W and P2553WY. P1659W grows faster and performs excellently under irrigation. P2553WY is a medium grower for dryland production. For the western region, we offer the slower growers, P2707WYB, P2880WYB and P2864WBR,” Emile said.

Yellow maize

DuPont Pioneer has a whole range of yellow cultivars ready. “For KwaZulu-Natal we have the P1498R hybrid that is very well adapted for this region. It is a quick grower with a high yield. For the Eastern Highveld we have P2317 conventional, a medium grower. P2319B is suitable for the east, but can also be planted in the western production region. It is strongly multi-eared. In the Eastern Free State’s Highveld, P2370B, grows slower, but performs very well. It is a brand new dryland cultivar and has excellent standing ability,” he says. The P2432R hybrid is now strongly promoted.

Soy beans

DuPont Pioneer offers three new soy bean varieties that will set the farming community abuzz. Phb96T06R is already available in its second season. It falls in growth class 6 and performs very well in the east and west. This cultivar shows excellent tolerance against droughts.

In addition, there are two brand new soy bean cultivars. P61T38R is a determinate grower in growth class 6.1, which can be used very well by irrigation farmers. It has a lanceolate leaves that open at the top so that it can be effectively sprayed against diseases such as sclerotinia.

P64T39R is in the longer growth class, namely 6.4. “It performs very well in the west and according to the recent test results; it shows strong tolerance against drought conditions. It will also perform very well in the east, but then farmers will have to start planting early, because it takes longer to grow,” said Emile.

All DuPont Pioneer’s seed are adapted for South African conditions, because each cultivar is developed on their test farms at Potchefstroom and Delmas. It takes between six and seven years for each new cultivar to go through the trial and registry process.

ProBox

DuPont Pioneer thinks much further than seed breeding. Their revolutionary ProBox is designed to make seed handling much easier. Special crates filled with seed are delivered on the farm. In the morning before they start planting, the farmer transports the crates to the fields on a specially crafted trolley provided by DuPont Pioneer. The seed is then transferred to each individual seed bin of the planter with a telescopic pipe and remote control.

The latest addition is that farmers can now apply their seed treatment to soybeans directly in the crates. This benefit makes the system even more popular with farmers.

Afterwards, the durable crates are returned to co-op to be re-used.

Du Preez Kritzinger is ready to answer any further questions. Call him on 082-574-2272 or 012-683-5752, or e-mail dupreez.kritzinger@pioneer.com.