Nuseed, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nufarm Limited, this week announced the acquisition of Seeds 2000 Inc, based in Breckenridge, Minnesota, USA.
Seeds 2000 is a seed research, production, sales and marketing company focused primarily on the development of elite oil and confection sunflower hybrids that benefit both the farmer and end-use food customer. The company has significantly expanded its international activities in recent years and today conducts development and sales activities in the USA, Canada, China, Argentina and a number of European markets.
Nuseed is a global seed and traits company focused on the enhancement of food and feed value through seed technology. The company develops proprietary canola, sunflower, and sorghum products that are marketed in over 25 countries. Nuseed has existing sunflower breeding and marketing operations based in California, Argentina, Serbia and Australia.
Sunflower is an important oilseed and snack food crop, occupying approximately 24 million hectares of land globally and producing approximately 32 million metric tonnes of grain annually.
Seeds 2000 President, Steve Kent, said he expected the transition to be seamless and to facilitate additional opportunities to expand the business in both the US domestic market and globally.
Seed World magazine has produced a series of video interviews that are now available on their website. These are part of their Giant Views of the Industry series and contain interviews taken at the International Seed Federation World Seed Congress, the American Seed Trade Association annual convention and the National Association of Plant Breeders annual meeting, as part of its Giant Views of the Industry video series.
Topics discussed by top industry executives from the American Seed Trade Association, Pioneer Hi-Bred, Applewood Seed, HM Clause, Monsanto Company, Syngenta and more include plant breeding, intellectual property, regulatory updates, seed trade issues, trends in the flower and vegetable industry and much more. Given today’s highly evolving business landscape, these interviews provide valuable insight and information to everyone involved in the U.S. seed trade.
Here’s an example of one of the clips you’ll find. North Carolina State University watermelon and cucumber breeder, Todd Wehner, talks about why more funding is critical moving forward.
This is an awesome sight to biker fans. They are the Beck’s Hybrids 75th Anniversary custom built Orange County Choppers motorcycles. You can find some more photos in the photo album. The one on the left has a combine corn head with ears of corn for handles and both have vintage farm scenes on the gas tanks.
You can stop by the Beck’s tent to enter to win one of these bikes in the We Care for Orphans Adoption Fund Sweepstakes. You can get more details in the booth. The drawing will be held on Feb. 22, 2012 and the winner will be announced at Commodity Classic in Nashville, Tenn., March 1 – 3, 2012.
“My great grandfather and grandfather started Beck’s 75 years ago, following the principle of providing our customers with the best in seed quality, field performance and service,” said Scott Beck, vice president of Beck’s Hybrids. “In celebration of our 75th anniversary, we commissioned OCC to build two custom choppers, with one of the choppers being featured on the popular Discovery Channel TV show, American Chopper. A second bike was built to raise money for the We Care for Orphans Adoption Fund.”
The bikes were designed by Paul Teutul Sr., CEO of Orange County Choppers and will touring farm shows throughout the rest of the season.
At the Ag Media Summit I visited with Russ Berndt, Becker Underwood. I asked him what’s new.
Russ says one of the relatively new products he’d like to point to is their Vault HP product line. He says they had a phenomenal increase in sales last year. You’ll hear him explain why in our interview. He says that the ag media were interested to know what the trends are that he sees in the marketplace. Those include the increase in use of seed applied treatments and interest in biological solutions to disease and pest problems, both of which are being worked on by Becker Underwood.
Wyffels Hybrids showed their appreciation to the Cummmings family for making their farm available once again for the 2011 Corn Strategies in Iowa. Pictured is the Cummings family with Marty Cummings receiving a very nice award from Bill Wyffels, Jr., company president. Marty was asked how long the family has been planting Wyffels products and what he likes about the company. Although he couldn’t remember how many years they’ve been using Wyffels products he said, “Of all the companies we’ve done business with, the President (Bill) came out personally to see what he could do to make it (their farm) more profitable. I thought that was pretty good for a President to come out.”
Wyffels also announced that the location of next year’s Corn Strategies will be in a new location. I spoke with Matt Barnard to get a wrap-up of this year’s event. He says that as soon as they leave this location they’ll start on next year’s event. It will be held at Harmon Farms in Vincent, Iowa.
We heard what Iowa farmers thought about the 2011 Wyffels Hybrids Corn Strategies, now let’s hear from some Wyffels people. First up is National Sales Manager, Brian Humphries (pictured on the left). Brian gets a chance to travel throughout the Wyffels territory so I asked him to describe the crop conditions he’s seen. In Kentucky things are wet and as you move through Illinois the crops are below average up through the middle of the state above which they look good. Then moving into Iowa the crops for the most part look good, especially in the northern part of the state. With all the weather challenges in the corn belt Brian says Wyffels has more research testing locations than their competitors to take a broad look at a broad range of genetics. The weather has provided some very real world “test” situations this year. He says the biggest concern he’s hearing from growers is grain marketing. That’s why Wyffels has made sure their Corn Strategies program has experts to talk about it.
Next up is Chris Eichorn (pictured on right), Product Development Manager. He says that’s a fancy way of saying he’s a corn breeder. Chris says the company has one of the largest research programs for a company of their size. They don’t like surprises so when they release a hybrid with a Wyffels number on it they are confident they know what that hybrid can and cannot do. One of the new ones he especially wanted to point out is W5077 (pdf), a 107 day hybrid that has “popped to the top.” He’s also high on W7477 (pdf) which they call the “corn breeders nightmare” since they can’t find anything wrong with it.
And finally we have Rick Buresh (pictured left), Central Iowa Region Manager. In his territory he says growers have been very fortunate. The wind that blew through recently mostly affected the eastern part of the territory. Now the main concern is heat. Rick says that being in pollination like the crop is right now, the plants need a rest at night. He says customers are upbeat but are asking questions about increasing input costs. I saw mostly smiles and he says, “They deserve to smile.”
Farmers attending the Wyffels Hybrids Corn Strategies feel like they get real value from their experience and investment of time. I spoke with three Iowa farmers during the event in Malcom, IA. Let’s start with Sue Utt who farms on the central southern edge of the state. Sue is also a sales person for Troy Elevator. She brings a couple of her customers to Corn Strategies and says she she learns a lot from all the speakers on the program. She says that conditions in her area are pretty good although the corn is somewhat uneven from having too much moisture early in the season. However, she’s very optimistic about the crop this year.
Brad Klodt (pictured left) is a little further east in Iowa than Sue. He says conditions in his area are pretty good although sub surface moisture is starting to disappear. He’s very happy about his corn even though there are some spotty areas due to early season moisture. The heat has really evened up his corn. He says he takes away “a little bit of everything” from Corn Strategies. He says the program opens his eyes to a lot of things like the fact that we’re all in a global marketplace.
In a completely different part of the state, south of Spencer, is Marcia Langner. She says that conditions are good but pretty wet. There was quite a bit of rain last week for example. She says educational opportunities like Corn Strategies are very valuable and she likes to get as much out of them as possible. I asked her what she heard that would be a take-away for her. She laughed about hearing the range of prices discussed by all the speakers but says that it’s good information you have to consider and figure out how it will work for you.
Last week Cindy attended the Wyffels Hybrids 2011 Corn Strategies in Illinois. This week it’s my turn in Malcom, Iowa. I think she got a better sunset picture than I did. I got done with some interviews in time to notice that the sun was going down since we were in an air conditioned tent. There are some photos in the photo album you’ll find a link to below that I took after climbing to the top of the grain bin in this photo. Let me tell you it was still hot up there!
Welcoming us tonight to the Cummings Farm was Adam Ploog, Wyffels Hybrids, regional manager. I spoke with him about crop conditions in this area. Adam says things look pretty good in the eastern part of Iowa but they could use a little rain and with the heat index so high there is some uncertainty about the effect that it will have. He says the idea behind the program here is to provide some of their most progressive customers from all over the state with information they can take home that will bring value to their operation. He says “We’re a very, very customer focused business. We’re not the biggest seed corn company in the business. We know that, but we feel like we have products that are just as good as anybody else’s and we’re more customer focused than our competitors.”
The slogan for Wyffels Corn Hybrids is “More than a Number” which is the company’s philosophy when it comes to both their customers and their hybrids, but they do keep adding more numbers to their lineup of corn hybrids.
“We released 12 new products this last year,” said Wyffels Product Development Manager Bob Jackson at the 2011 Wyffels Corn Strategies event in Dixon, Illinois last week. “So, there’s kind of a new hybrid for everyone of our customers, whether they’re in southern Minnesota or southern Illinois.”
Corn is all Wyffels does and Bob says when they look at new hybrids they are looking for what will make the farmers more money. “So that means more bushels, better standing products and better plant health. It’s always about making the customer more revenue.”
Dozens of Wyffels corn hybrids were on display at the Illinois Corn Strategies event last week and will be this week as well at the Iowa event in Malcom. If you would like to attend the Iowa event on Wednesday, find out more information on-line or contact your local Wyffels Seed Representative.
2011 marks the seventh year for Wyffels Corn Strategies and it just continues to get bigger and better. I talked with event coordinator Matt Barnard and Wyffels Hybrids director of marketing Jeff Hartz, pictured here together enjoying the Illinois event on Wednesday.
The concept for the event started in 2005 when the company gathered a small group of growers at a hotel in Springfield, IL. “There wasn’t really anything in the industry that just educated growers to get better at what they do,” Matt told me. “We now are moving them around Illinois and Iowa and last year we had about 1200 folks that joined us.”
Jeff says Corn Strategies is not a high pressure sales event, it’s just a way they can help the “freethinkers” they serve. “We define a freethinker as somebody that knows more about their operation and their soil than the average farmer,” he explains. “Those kind of people who take the time to really get inside their acres really can find value with a company like Wyffels.”
Jeff adds that Wyffels’ customers have come to look forward to the Corn Strategies event each year. “They keep coming back and more of them keep coming back every year,” he said. “We think we’re on to something pretty special that really embodies our company and what we’re all about.”
The Wyffels Corn Strategies 2011 event in Illinois this week was hosted by one of the best looking farm families you’ll ever see.
Pictured here, starting with Bill Wyffels on the left, are Mike and Susan Pratt, Peter and Emily Pratt, Andy and Katie Pratt, and the absolutely adorable Natalie and Ethan, who are the 5th generation in the Pratt farm family. They were all the gracious hosts to about 600 farmers who attended the Wyffels event. (Click on the photo for a bigger version.)
I talked with Katie about what all is involved in hosting such an event. “We took approximately ten acres out of one of our corn fields, six of that was planted to grass where the exhibit area, parking and tents were set up, and the rest of it was set to plots,” she said. They were all set up and ready to go on Monday, when that straight line windstorm that blew across Illinois and Iowa hit. “But, amazingly, the weather is wonderful today and the corn is standing back up again, thank God!” Katie said.
Katie also talked about her other job, as an Illinois Farm Families blogger on WatchUsGrow.org. “That’s where several women are blogging just about daily life on the farm and answering questions,” she said.
Listen to or download my interview with Katie here: Katie Pratt
The farmers who attended the Wyffels Corn Strategies 2011 event in Dixon, Illinois on Wednesday were challenged to “learn at least one new thing” to help improve their operations, but most probably got lots more than that out of the day.
Dr. Mike Boehlje, agricultural economist with Purdue’s Center for Food and Agricultural Business, shared his thoughts on “All Things Volatility” with the growers. “We are seeing volatility at an unprecedented level,” he said, both in terms of corn prices and the cost of inputs. “I mean, when you lose about a buck off the price of corn in two days – that used to be the price of corn, a buck, and we lost that in two days.”
Dr. Boehlje’s main advice for growers is to determine their cost of production per bushel, not per acre. “That’s what you sell,” he said. “Knowing your costs is a critical part of any successful business, whether it be manufacturing widgets, or automobiles, or corn.”
Another presenter at the event was Jim Bower, owner and president of Bower Trading, who talked about some of the factors growers should consider in making decisions out ahead.
“These next two to three weeks are going to be terribly important to price discovery,” he said. “They’re going to do themselves well to pay really close attention to the models of weather and how they impact the market on a daily basis.” Jim says he is particularly concerned right now about a potential weather pattern developing that would push the extremely hot and dry weather that has been sitting over Texas and Oklahoma up into the Midwest and Eastern Corn Belt, which could push yields down.
Jim talked about other important factors that are more long term than the weather, such as increasing global demand for protein.
Listen to or download my interview with Jim here: Jim Bower
Raven’s Ryan Molitor says the system provides growers with more reliability, efficiency and control. “OmniSeed allows for variable rate technology, it’s a very scalable system with a lot of unique features on it that we think are going to be pretty popular in the air seeder market,” Ryan told me in an interview. The system consists of various components, including the Viper Pro Field Computer which Ryan says is the brains of the system, and Run Blockage powered by AgTron.
Ryan says the system is surprisingly simple to set up and easy to use. “And we have a vast dealer network throughout the world that is trained up and ready to service and support at point of sale and after,” he said.
Raven Industries is a proud supporter of the Agwired app for iPhone and Droid. Don’t have it yet? Join the hundreds who do today and get Agwired, PrecisionPays, WorldDairyDiary and DomesticFuel news fast and easy on your smart phone! Click here.
“Stamina F3 Cereals arms our growers with an effective seed treatment for their small grain seedlings,” said Don Guy, Marketing Manager, BASF Cereals Portfolio. “As one of our SeedSolutions treatments in our cereals offering, Stamina F3 Cereals delivers excellent disease control, convenience of use and low-dusting application. Stamina F3 Cereals has a red colorant and its higher application rate makes it very suitable for on-farm applications. Stamina F3 Cereals also complements Stamina® F3 HL fungicide seed treatment, which is designed specifically for commercial application.”
Stamina F3 Cereals delivers the benefits of three active ingredients that work together to provide broad-spectrum seed and seedling disease control in small grains. These three active ingredients, F500® (the same active ingredient in Stamina and Stamina F3 HL fungicide seed treatments, Headline® fungicide and TwinLine® fungicide), triticonazole (active ingredient in Charter® fungicide and Charter® F2 fungicide seed treatments) and metalaxyl (active ingredient in Acquire® fungicide seed treatment) have proven performance as shown in BASF’s current Crop Protection Solutions and SeedSolutions offerings. Seed treatment application with Stamina F3 Cereals has been associated with more rapid and increased emergence of seedlings under certain cold conditions.
The whole refuge in the bag concept is a great one and now GROWMARK is making it available. This spring there are two FS Seed corn varieties that have the Refuge In Bag (RIB). They are FS 54VX1 RIB and FS 61BX1 RIB. Each bag contains the correct blend of traited and non-traited seed needed to meet refuge requirements for both above- and below-ground pests.
“FS Seed is one of the few regional seed companies to offer Genuity® SmartStaxTM RIB CompleteTM for planting this spring,” said Lance Ruppert, FS Seed sales and marketing manager. “Our focus has been and will continue to be to bring the best seed innovations to growers through our FS Seed brands, and this is just the latest example.”
Farmers using Genuity SmartStax seed corn are required to plant five percent of their corn acres with non-traited varieties, to help reduce the development of resistant pests. Using RIB Complete technology eliminates the need to dedicate certain acres to refuge. “Growers can purchase and plant one product that satisfies their need for both yield potential and IRM (insect resistance management) refuge requirements,” Ruppert said. “ This simplicity helps make planning and planting more efficient.” Farmers interested in using RIB Complete corn this spring should contact their local FS crop specialist.
Monsanto is facing a legal challenge from organic farmers over genetically modified seed.
The Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) filed suit this week on behalf of 60 family farmers, seed businesses and organic agricultural organizations, against Monsanto Company as a preemptive measure “to protect themselves from being accused of patent infringement should they ever become contaminated by Monsanto’s genetically modified seed, something Monsanto has done to others in the past.”
“This case asks whether Monsanto has the right to sue organic farmers for patent infringement if Monsanto’s transgenic seed should land on their property,” said Dan Ravicher, PUBPAT’s Executive Director and Lecturer of Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York. “It seems quite perverse that an organic farmer contaminated by transgenic seed could be accused of patent infringement, but Monsanto has made such accusations before and is notorious for having sued hundreds of farmers for patent infringement, so we had to act to protect the interests of our clients.”
Monsanto calls the organization’s allegations “false, misleading and deceptive.”
The plaintiffs’ approach is a publicity stunt designed to confuse the facts about American agriculture. These efforts seek to reduce private and public investment in the development of new higher-yielding seed technologies. This attack comes at a time when the world needs every agricultural tool available to meet the needs of a growing population, expected to reach 9 billion people by 2050. While we respect the opinion of organic farmers as it relates to the products they choose to grow, we don’t believe that American agriculture faces an all-or-nothing approach. Rather we believe that farmers should have the ability to choose the best agricultural tools to farm their own land and serve their own end-market customers. We are confident that these multiple approaches can coexist side-by-side and sustainably meet the world’s food needs over next 40 years.
Yesterday Bayer CropScience held a press conference via web and phone to announce its agreement to purchase Hornbeck Seed Company Inc., a privately-held company headquartered in DeWitt, Arkansas, USA. The seed company supplies soybean, rice and wheat varieties to the southern U.S. market. I was dialed in to the call and am sharing it below for your listening pleasure and use.
Bayer CropScience will acquire the seed businesses and gain access to quality soybean germplasm for future variety and trait development. Financial details were not disclosed.
Since its founding in the early 1980s, Hornbeck has grown into one of the Mid-South’s most reputable seed suppliers. The company is known for providing high-quality seed and excellent service to customers across Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
For Bayer CropScience, the acquisition is a logical step in a series of investment decisions addressing the needs of southern growers, and in particular soybean growers. Further milestones were the Stoneville Pedigreed Seed acquisition in 2007, the M.S. Technologies collaboration in soybeans in 2007, the launch of LibertyLink® soybeans in 2009 and the Athenix Corp. acquisition in 2009.
Syngenta Seeds announced today it has received full deregulation from USDA for corn amylase (Event 3272), the first corn output trait designed to help ethanol industry become more efficient, profitable and environmentally friendly.
Syngenta Seeds plans to sell corn containing Event 3272 under the “Enogen” seed brand. “Enogen corn is a breakthrough product that provides ethanol producers a proven means to create more value per gallon while offering targeted corn growers an opportunity to cultivate a premium specialty crop in a contracted, closed production system,” said David Morgan, president of Syngenta Seeds. “Also, Enogen corn can substantially reduce the energy and water consumed and the carbon emissions associated with ethanol production.”
“Corn amylase is the first processing output trait to be scrutinized by our regulatory system,” said NCGA president Bart Schott, a grower from North Dakota. “The potential importance of output traits to growers and industry will only increase as other output traits are developed.”
Corn amylase is approved in Japan, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, Taiwan, and the Philippines. Amylase was found to be safe for food and feed by the Food and Drug Administration in 2007.
Back in 1970, Jerry Stoller started StollerUSA with a few dollars and some unusual ideas and now the company has a global footprint and a lot of acceptance in the U.S. Today, Jeff Morgan, Stoller’s marketing director, said that they are happy to commemorate their 40 year anniversary.
AgWired reporter Chuck Zimmerman was able to catch up with Morgan during the annual NAFB Trade Talk in Kansas City. StollerUSA may be 40 years old, but each year they are releasing bigger and better products to help the grower succeed.
“The success of our Bio-Forge product continues to increase. Growers are beginning to understand how our products dovetail into their programs,” said Morgan. “They spend a lot of money on seed. There are a lot of genetic traits built into that seed that they need. The challenge becomes when they go out and stick it in the dirt, nature takes over and they need to find a way to extract all that potential. That’s where Stoller products like Bio-Forge come in. We help extract all that potential out of that seed so you can earn that ROI.”
The evidence comes out in the field and was demonstrated when Missouri farmer Kip Cullers broke the soybean yield record. One of the products he used was Bio-Forge. Morgan noted that one thing Kip did that other growers can emulate is that he pre-treated his seed with Bio-Forge. According to Morgan, it’s a cost effective way for growers to become familiar with Stoller technology.
You can learn more about Bio-Force and other Stoller products in Chuck’s interview with Jeff. Increasing Yield With Bio-Forge
I was fascinated to see the Iowa State University Seed Science Center which was a tour stop for the TATT Global Farmer to Farmer Roundtable. One of our hosts was Michael Stahr, Seed Laboratory Manager.
The first thing that really got my attention was their herbarium which contains over 6,000 vials of seeds that date back to when George Washington Carver was doing work there. These are used primarily to compare and identify seed samples. It is of course in a locked cabinet! Michael says they test seeds for a variety of things. In fact, they’re the largest public seed lab in the country doing over 40,000 tests/year. Besides testing they also do seed conditioning. They conduct workshops for seed company personnel to improve the quality of their seed.
In this week's program Chuck talks with Mike Adams, AgriTalk.
Chuck and Mike often wind up at the same events all over the country so it seemed like a good idea to do a little AgriTalking about the changes they've seen in the ag media landscape.
Nuseed, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nufarm Limited, this week announced the acquisition of Seeds 2000 Inc, based in Breckenridge, Minnesota, USA.
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Corn is all Wyffels does and Bob says when they look at new hybrids they are looking for what will make the farmers more money. “So that means more bushels, better standing products and better plant health. It’s always about making the customer more revenue.”
2011 marks the seventh year for 
The farmers who attended the 
Another presenter at the event was Jim Bower, owner and president of 
“Stamina F3 Cereals arms our growers with an effective seed treatment for their small grain seedlings,” said Don Guy, Marketing Manager, BASF Cereals Portfolio. “As one of our SeedSolutions treatments in our cereals offering, Stamina F3 Cereals delivers excellent disease control, convenience of use and low-dusting application. Stamina F3 Cereals has a red colorant and its higher application rate makes it very suitable for on-farm applications. Stamina F3 Cereals also complements Stamina® F3 HL fungicide seed treatment, which is designed specifically for commercial application.”
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In this week's program Chuck talks with Mike Adams, AgriTalk.
