Pivot Bio introduced a nitrogen-producing microbe, called Pivot Bio PROVEN in 2019. The product, “sold extensively” in 2020, offers economic and environmental benefits.
Pivot Bio PROVEN supplies cereal crops “a constant source of nitrogen throughout most of the growing season,” says Dan Poston, director of agronomy with Pivot Bio.
“It’s a liquid formulated microbe that is applied in-furrow,” Poston says. “When the seed emerges and sprouts, that microbe can colonize and live on the corn root. The roots exude multiple compounds, many of which are carbs. The microbe lives off those exudates and in exchange, fixes atmospheric nitrogen in the form of ammonia. It excretes that ammonia on the root surface where the plants can directly take it up in the form of ammonia.”
Pivot Bio embraces an “extensive trialing network” and utilizes multiple methods of testing on its products. Pivot Bio further analyzes Pivot Bio PROVEN, whose primary goal is to “complement what nitrogen is already there.”
“(In) 2019, we were around six bushels per acre, from a yield increase standpoint. For 2020, we just got through our whole plant nitrogen assessments, where we investigate the total pounds of nitrogen captured above-ground as the result of our microbe treatment,” Poston says.
