Introducing Bayer's biostimulant Yoalo®, which gives plant performance a biological boost

In Bayer’s biologicals business, across our collaborative innovation ecosystem and our internal R&D efforts, our goal is clear: to advance new solutions and get them into the hands of growers, giving them additional possibilities.

Getting entirely new solutions to market is not easy or quick. But the people within Bayer and external partners who are talented, dedicated, and genuinely care about improving agriculture’s impact for the long term. And we have several solutions that are in line for initial launch or expansion soon. One such solution is Yoalo.

Many of Bayer's established biological solutions are biocontrol products for protection against pests or diseases. The other core category of agricultural biologicals is the fast-growing group of biostimulants, which can help plants better access nutrients or withstand stresses to grow vigorously – fulfilling a role more like fertilizers. Yoalo is a member of this category. It is currently undergoing regulatory processes ahead of a planned launch as a seed treatment in corn.

Based on a soil bacterium (a strain of Bacillus velezensis), the microorganism can associate with the corn roots and solubilize insoluble nutrients in the soil. Specifically, the microbe solubilizes soil-bound inorganic nutrients and produces enzymes that release organic-bound nutrients. Through these activities, the product can make more nutrients available for plant uptake. This can result in superior crop nutrition from increased plant levels of key macro- and micro-nutrients, improved root system, and increased yield potential. In short: Yoalo is a much-needed solution, delivering a new form of crop enhancement functionality.

What’s more, even though Yoalo contains a living organism, it delivers robust and stable long-term performance. Tests indicate that Yoalo is effective for up to two years on-seed. That’s in line with what you would expect from a chemical – and it makes Yoalo a real industrial seed treatment. Customers appreciate the power of biological solutions, but they also sometimes ask what the compromises are in adopting them. But with Yoalo, they don’t have to compromise. It is designed as a reliable solution without downsides.

So far, the article talked about Yoalo on its own – but that’s not the whole story, because the beauty of Yoalo is in how it adds to the other solutions we offer as part of integrated packages.

Yoalo will exclusively be available in Acceleron® seed treatment combinations on Dekalb® seeds. It’s a natural fit for this, because it’s highly stable and seed-safe (and therefore compatible with our other premium inputs), and it offers something new and complementary to our existing solutions.

This is exciting because it takes our combined biological seed treatment portfolio to a new level. Yoalo joins other biological brands such as Ibisio® and B-360 in SeedGrowth's integrated offering under the Acceleron banner. Biologicals are no longer an ‘added extra’, but a core part of the value proposition to customers.

The real perspective that matters is that of the grower. Growers see seed treatments from the ‘other end’ of the process, and are more interested in end results rather than stages of development. In other words, they care about what they get in their bag of seeds.

Adding new seed treatment functionality means adding new dimensions to the protection and support we offer growers’ plants from day one. It’s another thing ‘taken care of’ and one less worry for the customer. Looking at it from that perspective really underlines why innovations like Yoalo are central to our mission.

This certainly won’t be the last thing we have to say about Yoalo. There are more developments coming, so stay tuned. For now, we will keep working to bring Yoalo to customers, and keep jointly innovating to connect those customers with even more technologies that strengthen their support networks and help make their operations a success. There is a world of possibilities out there!