On a call with our team this week, our sales account manager Jason brought up a topic of conversation we’ve been hearing more and more often.
“Chad,” he said, “I’ve got this farmer who has been using Strike on his acres. I asked him if he would be willing to give a testimonial on the results of using Strike but he doesn’t want to do it.”
Until a year or two ago, I might have assumed that the farmer was hesitant about admitting to using Strike, a soil fumigant. Yes, it has a boatload of trial data going back a decade or more. Yes, there’s a long list of farmers who swear by it.
However, soil fumigants have suffered from an image problem. Though Strike is different – it’s a modern, highly-selective, soil health-promoting tool – some people still incorrectly assume all fumigants to be old-school, ‘kill all’ soil sterilizers. Strike is anything but, and until recently, got lumped under conventional fumigants’ bad reputation.
The good news is that the agriculture community is now increasingly informed about selective inputs in general and Strike in particular. There’s more and more awareness that Strike’s active ingredient, chloropicrin, suppresses all the major soil-borne potato diseases (common scab and early die complex) even as it bolsters the populations of nutrient recycling saprophytes and other beneficial growth-promoting microbes in the soil. It offers a long list of sustainability and productivity benefits.
Turns out, the farmer’s reluctance to talk about Strike wasn’t embarrassment or worry at all. It was exactly the opposite: he’s been doing so well with Strike that he doesn’t want to share.
What Jason went on to say in our team meeting is, “The farmer says he doesn’t want other growers to know the secret of his competitive advantage. However, I know he can’t help himself. I know he’s telling his neighbours about what he can’t believe is happening in his fields.”
If you’re using Strike and you, like him, are trying hard to keep your competitive advantage under wraps, I understand! If I were you, I’m pretty sure I’d feel the same. Agriculture’s margins are so tight these days that every leg up – especially such a significant leg up – is an opportunity worth holding onto.
If you’re not using Strike, what are you missing out on? Is your yield and quality being left behind? Are you accepting unnecessary losses just because “that’s the way it’s always been done”? Do you want in on the potato industry’s worst-kept secret too?
