Finding a soybean pod in a field with five beans in it is rare. But farmers are looking for them this fall, as part of a promotion for Asgrow Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans.
While searching one of his soybean fields on September 8, Jim Peters who farms near Le Mars in northwest Iowa with Asgrow brand representatives found a 5-bean pod.
As part of the Asgrow 5-Bean Pod Challenge, the first 1,000 farmers to find a soybean pod with five beans in it in their Asgrow Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield field this season will receive five free bags of Asgrow Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans for the 2011 planting season.
Farmers can win 5 free bags of soybean seed for planting in 2011
RARE FIND: Farmer Jim Peters holds up the 5-bean pod found in one of his soybean fields near Le Mars in northwest Iowa on September 8.
Peters says he looked quite a while in the field and then someone else who was standing there happened to look down and just laid eyes on the 5-bean pod. "You see a lot of pods with three beans in them," notes Peters. "In the top two-thirds of the plant there are some pods with four beans in them. And in the very top of the plant is where we found the five-bean pod. I had never seen a 5-bean pod before."
Peters says the variety that produced his 5-bean pod was Asgrow 2830. "It looks good. I also have some Asgrow 3030s and they look very good too." Monsanto held this promotion last fall too, but new this year is the first grower who finds five, five-bean pods in his or her state will win 50 bags of free seed.
"With Asgrow Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans, farmers are finding more 3, 4 and even 5-bean pods compared to Roundup Ready soybeans," says Jerry DeVore, Asgrow marketing manager. "More beans per pod means higher yield potential at harvest." As of mid-September, Monsanto already has reports of five Iowa farmers finding 5-bean pods in their Asgrow Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans.