Soybean growers now have a new way to produce a higher yielding, more profitable crop. It's Optimize' Soybean Growth Promoter, a natural bacterial compound that accelerates and enhances early season soybean vigor.

Optimize was developed by Nitragin, Inc., the world's leading manufacturer of legume inoculants. Four years of field test data show that soybeans treated with Optimize return a profitable yield increase and are more likely to reach their maximum protein and oil content. That's because Optimize quickly initiates a range of activities in the developing soybean plant that is broader than would occur with an inoculant alone. This early-season bump helps improve stand, enhanced relative root development and early canopy closure. As a result, soybeans treated with Optimize show a three-year average of 3.5 bushels more per acre compared to non-inoculated seed.

"Optimize is more than an inoculant. It is a new growth promoter technology," says Dr. Scott Fleetwood, vice president of marketing and sales with Nitragin. "Optimize stimulates the nodulation process independent of temperature. As a result, it is very effective when used with early planting, and in the cooler soil of conservation tillage systems" Fleetwood says the patented active ingredient in Optimize is delivered with Nitragin's Cell-Tech" inoculant in a liquid form that is applied on soybean seed.

The promoter effect of the Optimize active ingredient combined with the quality of the Cell-Tech carrier work directly with soybean plants to maximize nitrogen supply - an important new opportunity to help growers achieve maximum economic yields. "U.S. soybean growers are looking for ways to improve their return on investment, yield and quality," says Fleetwood. "In fact, Nitragin has teamed up with the American Soybean Association to educate U.S. producers about ways to improve quality and help regain a competitive edge in global markets. Offshore competition is increasing and that means individual growers, and the U.S. soybean industry in general, have to extract the most value possible from their inputs.

Along with improved varieties, the new Optimize promoter technology will help them reach that goal." Optimize has a high level of compatibility with popular fungicide seed treatments. Once applied to soybean seed by your local crop protection retailer, Optimize remains effective for 30 days.

The Nitragin Company was founded in 1898 after a Milwaukee entrepreneur purchased the rights to a commercial process for producing nitrogen-fixing rhizobia. The business remained privately owned until 1982. In 1991, the Nitragin Company was sold to current owner, Merck KgaA of Darmstadt, Germany. Known today as Nitragin, Inc., the company is acknowledged as the technological and market share leader in the legume inoculant industry. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Nitragin markets inoculant products under its well-known Cell-Tech(r), Soil Implant(r) and Nitragin Gold trade names for soybean, peanut, pulse and forage crop markets.

Optimize is a trademark and Cell-Tech and Soil Implant are registered trademarks of Nitragin, Inc.