Syngenta made two announcements during Commodity Classic last week - a new sustainability team and that their water optimization technology is on track. I spoke with Terry Stone who is heading the new sustainability team as well as Tracy Mader, Project Marketing Head who is working with the team developing the water optimization technologies.
I asked Stone to tell me what the mission of the new sustainability team was and he explained, “Our focus is helping growers produce more from less and to realize where they’re at in terms of not just how much they are producing but now much energy, water, soil loss and other impacts they are having from production.”
There is a lot of talk now about how the world will need to feed nine billion people in the next 30 years so I asked Stone how sustainability and world food production go hand in hand. “Farmers are the original stewards of the land and when you think about land, you have to think about soil and the soil is the farmer’s bread and butter,” explained Stone. “They’ve been very careful about the health of their soil and the more healthy the soil, the more productive it will be.”
Water optimization also goes hand-in-hand with sustainability and Mader gave me an update on their technology that is close to market. “Our water optimization technology is on track and has made several technical milestones. We plan to introduce this technology in the 2011 planting season for growers in the plains and the Western cornbelt of the United States.”
Nebraska and California are the two most irrigated states and Syngenta did research in both of these states as well as other regions. However, they are developing the technology to both work during drought conditions and during optimal conditions.
“We are really committed to two guiding principals,” said Mader. “Number one to help the plant maximize its yield based on the available water and number two, when growing conditions are ideal, that the technology doesn’t offer any yield penalty. And our initial hybrids will meet both of these criteria.”
Listen below to my back-to-back interviews with Terry Stone and Tracy Mader.
Congrats to Tracy Mader who was just promoted to head of Product Marketing for Syngenta Seeds corn and soybean products.
In this new role, Mader will be responsible for the corn, soybean and other field crops portfolio, including traits, genetics, seed care and other relevant technology, and will oversee late stage product development, product launches and product lifecycle management.
Mader most recently served as the Agrisure marketing manager, responsible for branding, launching and marketing of Agrisure® corn traits. Mader joined Syngenta in 1995 as an employee of predecessor company Ciba. He brings a wealth of marketing experience and knowledge to the product marketing role, having had various positions within Syngenta throughout the U.S. He has an agricultural economics degree from Kansas State University.
The term “resistance fighter” was coined in World War II to describe the underground guerrilla movement that actively fought against Nazi occupation, particularly in Yugoslavia, Poland and France. Today, resistance fighters are targeting a different enemy in the ground – glyphosate-resistant weeds.
I talked with one of Syngenta’s Resistance Fighters of the Year at the National Farm Machinery Show. Paul Barchenger of Hutchinson, Minnesota was honored by Syngenta this year, along with Jeremy Kichler of Oglethorpe, Georgia. Both were recognized for exceptional leadership and advocate proactive management practices in the battle against glyphosate-resistant weeds.
“We have confirmed resistance in giant ragweed to glyphosate, started around 2004,” Paul told me. “We’ve been able to keep it isolated to a couple of townships in my geography, but it is growing.” He says that Syngenta is working to create awareness among growers and retailers that resistance can happen and they need to watch out for it.
Syngenta sponsors the Championship Tractor Pull at the National Farm Machinery Show, which kicks off each year to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.” This year it kicked off to Lee Greenwood performing his signature song live at the arena and on Thursday morning he was in the Syngenta booth, signing CDs for fans and helping Syngenta kick off a new campaign called “Weeding Out Hunger.”
“This is a very important event for the tractor pull and for Syngenta, there’s a great cause here and that’s feeding America,” Lee told me in a real quick interview as he was signing autographs. You can here more from Lee on today’s AgriTalk from the NFMS.
I learned more about the campaign, which is associated with Halex GT herbicide, from Carroll Moseley with Syngenta Crop Protection. “We directly affect and feed the population by controlling weeds in corn, this is a product for glyphosate-tolerant corn,” he said. “What better way to relate it to another direct way to impact people more needy than others than to have this Weeding Out Hunger campaign where we are contributing to feeding America affiliates across the United States.”
Find out more about the campaign at WeedingOutHunger.com.
Listen to back-to-back interviews with Lee and Carroll in the player below and here’s a little video from the Syngenta booth.
I learned what’s new with Syngenta Seeds from Wayne Fithian at the recent NAFB Trade Talk. He says that because of biotechnology the pace of new products is becoming more rapid. According to Wayne, they’re in the final stages of regulatory approval of their Agrisure Viptera for corn which they hope to have available for planting in 2010. Following that they’ll have “water optimization” which is an improved drought tolerance trait. And the list goes on and on.
When Syngenta Seeds considers new products to bring to market, they think like a farmer.
“They’re our primary customer at the end of the day and we can have the greatest technologies, the greatest genetics but if we don’t understand their business and the challenges they face, it could all be wasted,” said Agronomy Marketing Manager Bruce Battles at a recent ag media day at Syngenta Seeds new headquarters in Minnetonka, Minn.
Bruce says they use their seed innovations to meet grower needs and one example is the aphid management system they are preparing to launch in the next year. “In this example, we have taken genetics and taken a trait and put it with the genetics for controlling aphids. But, we’ve also taken our expertise from our seed care group in using a product like Cruiser as a seed treatment to help suppress aphid pressure,” he said.
Coming soon to a field near you from Syngenta Seeds – corn with water optimization traits.
Syngenta is going beyond drought-resistant corn to introduce water optimization traits, which will reduce the amount of moisture needed to optimize yield and minimize yield loss in drought conditions, as well as reduce water use in average years. Business Lead Corn Product Manager Wayne Fithian says this trait will help farmers be more productive and more sustainable. “Part of it is helping farmers do a better job of managing their environment,” Wayne said during a recent media day at the new Syngenta Seeds headquarters in Minnesota. “Sometimes it rains, sometimes it doesn’t rain and farmers get caught in this yo-yo of yields connected to rainfall. So if we can break that relationship and help farmers increase yield potential in times when Mother Nature doesn’t give them all the rain they want, then that would be a great thing.”
Wayne says water-optimized hybrids are expected to be available in 2011 through Garst, Golden Harvest and NK brand seeds. Listen to an interview with Wayne below.
Syngenta Seeds calls them “broad leps” – farmers call them expensive – most people would just call them icky.
They are a bunch of nasty wormy creatures – technically lepidopteran corn pests – that make up what Syngenta calls the “multi-pest complex” which costs growers over $1 billion each year in lost yield and grain quality. They include corn earworm, fall armyworm, Western bean cutworm, black cutworm, stalk borer and sugarcane borer.
Agrisure Marketing Manager Tracy Mader says the pests are challenging because they affect all areas of the country and all growth stages of the plant. “The industry has done a very good job controlling corn borer root worm, but the next step is to control this group of broad lep pests, like black cutworm, that can attack the crop at the very early stages.”
That is what they are striving for with the Agrisure Viptera™ trait for corn, which is still awaiting all necessary regulatory approvals and authorizations before it can be marketed. “We’re working really hard,” Tracy said. “What we do have is deregulation from the EPA and the FDA and we are working hard with USDA to receive deregulation for Agrisure Viptera™ and they’re also working in all the key export countries as well.”
I interviewed Tracy about Agrisure Viptera™ during the recent grand opening of the Syngenta Seeds headquarters in Minnetonka, MN. Listen to or download that interview below. And if you want to find out more – and see a really creepy but impressive video – go to agrisuretraits.com.
Syngenta Seeds new headquarters in Minnetonka, Minnesota is just one of the many locations where Syngenta has major research laboratories.
Principal Research Scientist for Insect Resistance Dirk Benson talked about Syngenta’s global research capabilities during a symposium for agricultural reporters during the grand opening event. “In Europe, we have insecticide development, we have herbicide technology development, in the US we have formulation development on the crop protection side,” Dirk said. “On the seeds and traits side, we have capabilities for biotechnology in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, we just opened a new site in Beijing, China to augment that. We do other seed research in Australia, we do some in Toulouse, France for our vegetable businesses, we do sugar beet work in Scandinavian countries.”
Dirk is based in North Carolina and he says they deal with everything from new trait discovery to building the vectors to insert in plants. “At Syngenta biotechnology in RTP, we have about 400 employees which represents about 10 percent of Syngenta’s global R&D force,” he said.
He is excited about the new headquarters because it provides great opportunity for collaborative opportunities for the organization as a whole.
Listen to or download my interview with Dirk Benson below.
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Dan Dyer, Syngenta Seeds Soybean Product Development Lead, told ag media during the grand opening of the company’s new headquarters that varieties like this prove how Syngenta Seeds is raising the bar. “Over the last couple of years, we’ve noticed in our own data and what we are hearing back from the field, about just how strong the performance is in our varieties,” Dan told me in an interview. “If you’re looking for top yields, these really are the top-yielding beans in the market.”
“It’s real simple for us, doesn’t sound too sophisticated, but we’re going to sell the highest yielding soybeans,” Dan said. “Our objective is to make the growers the most profitable they can be.”
Listen to or download my interview with Dan Dyer below.
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Why is this man smiling? Probably because he spends about half the year in Hawaii working on new corn seed hybrids for growers to plant back here on the mainland.
Ben Hable (pronounced Hobbly) is Syngenta Seeds Corn Product Development Lead. During an agricultural media seminar following the grand opening of the new Syngenta Seeds headquarters in Minnetonka, MN this week, Ben said that producing seed corn in Hawaii allows them to fast track new products to market. “In Hawaii we can actually turn a crop every 3 and a half months so we can increase the seeds that we need to get back here to the mainland for seed production,” Ben told me during an interview. “Syngenta now has over 300 full time staff in the state of Hawaii working on corn and soybean seed production.”
Ben told us that seed corn is now Hawaii’s biggest cash crop, and he was telling the truth. Just today, a story came out of Honolulu about the latest report from the the Hawaii Field Office of USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) that says the value of Hawaii’s seed industry for the 2008/2009 season was a “record high” of $176.6 million. Seed corn accounts for $169.3 million, or 96 percent, of the total value.
A recent Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation study shows that seed crops have become the largest agricultural commodity in the state, exceeding the value of both sugar and pineapple by 180 percent and 90 percent, respectively. The photo is of seed corn growing on the island of Molokai.
Listen to or download my interview with Ben Hable below.
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The CEO of Switzerland-based Syngenta helped to do the honors of opening the new headquarters of Syngenta Seeds in Minnetonka, MN on Monday.
Mike Mack says the new building represents Syngenta planting the seeds of the future. “We’re really proud of this extraordinary building which embodies the forward-looking, sustainable qualities and spirit of innovation that have driven Syngenta and its predecessor companies for more than a century,” Mack said during the grand opening ceremony. Mack highlighted the features of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certified building, which include natural light, recycled materials, and other environmentally-friendly features.
Mack also talked about how Syngenta Seeds was built on the acquisitions of several well-known seed brands, leading with Northrup King, which was started in Minnesota 125 years ago.
Listen to Mike Mack’s remarks at the grand opening below.
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The beautiful start to the Syngenta Seeds grand opening celebration gave way to cloudy skies and a rain shower just as Governor Tim Pawlenty was to arrive, which meant a quick change in venue to inside the building. But, the weather change did nothing to dampen the spirits of everyone on hand and the governor was warmly welcomed by Syngenta Seeds President David Morgan and Syngenta CEO Mike Mack.
Governor Pawlenty was pleased to congratulate Syngenta Seeds on the new headquarters building and their continued commitment to agriculture. “They’re not making land anymore, so there’s a finite amount of land,” said Pawlenty. “That’s why it’s imperative that we find a way to continue to feed the world and Syngenta is on the cutting edge of that technology.”
The governor noted that he was very proud of Minnesota agriculture and the fact that one out of every seven jobs in the state is related to agriculture. “We can’t have a successful state without a successful agriculture,” said Pawlenty.
Syngenta Seeds president David Morgan welcomed agricultural leaders, invited guests, media and employees to the official opening of the Syngenta Seeds headquarters on a beautiful Monday morning in Minnetonka. Among those in attendence were Syngenta CEO Mike Mack, Minnesota State Senator Terri Bonoff, state Agriculture Deputy Commissioner Jim Boerboom, Chamber of Commerce president David Olsen and Minnetonka mayor Terry Schneider.
Morgan praised the employees of Syngenta seeds for their hard work and commitment and recognized three exceptional sales reps responsible for $6-10 million in sales for the various Syngenta seed brands, including Garst, Golden Harvest and Northrup King. Morgan called the new building a symbol of the company’s increasing strength in the seeds business. “Our reputation is growing as a leader in agriculture and our new headquarters reflects our accomplishments and underscores our intent as we move confidently into the future.”
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty is expected to arrive shortly to join the celebration.
Welcome to the Grand Opening of the new Syngenta Seeds Headquarters in Minnetonka, MN.
We are gearing up for the festivities now at the site. The new LEED Gold certified building was just completed in July and boasts 116,000 square feet on 14 acres. There are more than 300 employees working here who enjoy such amenities as a wellness room, free health clinic, fitness facility and more.
The dignitaries are arriving now, the Syngenta employees lining up in their bright blue company shirts. Among those expected to take part in the celebration are the governor of Minnesota and several state lawmakers. Stay tuned for more.
In just a few days Syngenta Seeds will be holding the grand opening celebration of their new headquarters in Minnetonka, MN and Cindy will be on site to document the celebration in pictures and with interviews.
While I was attending the Farm Progress Show I visited with Syngenta’s Bruce Battles and Tracy Mader in their exhibit about one of their upcoming new traits called Agrisure Viptera. They believe that this product, which is due out in 2010, will take a corn grower’s yields to the next level.
Bruce says that when they were doing research on the product they discovered a whole new class of vegetative insecticidal proteins. Agrisure Viptera™ Broad-Spectrum Lepidopteran Trait
The Agrisure Viptera trait is the first of many new traits being developed from an entirely new class of Vegetative Insecticidal Proteins (VIP) within the Agrisure system of high-performance corn traits.
During the development of Agrisure Viptera they’ve looked at the collection of pests which they call the Multi-Pest Complex and found that it has cost American corn growers up to $1.1 Billion/year in lost yield and grain quality. They believe Agrisure Viptera can help mitigate that risk for the grower.
You can listen to my interview with Bruce and Tracy here:
As many of you may know, Atrazine is celebrating its 50th birthday. To learn more about it and what it means I spoke to Chuck Foresman, Syngenta Manager, Weed Resistance Strategies and Sherry Duvall Ford, Syngenta, Head, External Communications. We were at the Farm Progress Show in the media tent.
Chuck says that the product helped farmers back in the late 50’s and sustains its usefulness today. It’s used on many acres and particularly those devoted to conservation tillage. He says over the years farmers have learned a lot about how to use it and continue to see great value in it. One thing he mentions that is interesting is that even when Syngenta came to the market with a new class of herbicide called Callisto they found that using them together they work better than separately. He says Atrazine is found in over 40 different mixes today to control weeds in corn.
I asked about concerns that people have about the safety of Atrazine and Sherry says it’s probably the most studied products on the market. She wants the public to know that drinking water is completely safe where Atrazine is concerned. They work very closely with EPA on this.
Chuck points out that a looming threat in the field is glyphosate resistance and Atrazine plays a role to control many of the weeds that glyphosate controls so the they work to sustain each other. You can find a lot more information on the Syngenta Atrazine website.
For 50 years, farmers around the world have relied on atrazine — one of the triazine family of herbicides — to fight weeds in corn, grain sorghum, sugar cane and other crops. And for good reason: it’s still one of the most effective, affordable and trusted products in agriculture today.
Syngenta believes in atrazine, its effectiveness, its safety, its importance to agriculture – in the U.S. and worldwide.
You can listen to my interview with Chuck and Sherry here:
Syngenta Crop Protection has redesigned the online face of the company, FarmAssist.com.
With more than 30,000 visitors per month, FarmAssist® provides users with up-to-the-minute agricultural news and commentary, local weather customized by zip code, market observations and agronomic and product information.
The refreshed FarmAssist provides a better user experience, allowing visitors to navigate more easily through current industry news, updated educational materials and a new audio/visual library, featuring agronomic and product information, crop-related videos and customer testimonials. The new site improves upon the previous site that was set in place more than four years ago.
“The revamped site features a number of improvements over the old site,” said Anthony Transou, Syngenta internet marketing manager. “We were able to update the design, making navigation easy and efficient, and add improved features to provide users more agronomic resources. We continue to analyze our service offerings for our customers and provide them with the best information in whatever manner is most convenient for their business.”
J.B. Penn, Chief Economist for John Deere, has been recognized for his efforts that have “impacted the lives and livelihood of the world’s population by meeting the growing need for food.”
During a presentation after the last session today at the World Agricultural Forum in St. Louis, Syngenta Seeds President David Morgan presented Penn with the Syngenta Recognizing Contributions to Global Challenges Award for his work that has “contributed significantly to bringing plant potential to life by addressing the crucial issues of safe, affordable and reliable supplies of food, fuel, fiber and water.”
Morgan highlighted Penn’s work to calm fears after BSE in cattle was discovered to have been imported into the U.S. from Canada. He was also noted for his educational work about the enhanced safeguards put in place against BSE and helped lift bans on U.S. beef exports to other countries.
Penn told the delegates to the forum that he was very flattered, very honored and very pleased to accept the award. He hopes the award will help draw attention and better inform people of the daunting challenges facing agriculture in the future.
You can hear almost all of the award presentation (sorry, missed the first few seconds) and Penn’s acceptance remarks here:
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The readers of No-Till Farmer magazine voted on the products that performed best in their no-till operations in 2008 – and the “No-Till Product of the Year” winner is – Headline fungicide from BASF.
No-till products in 11 specific categories were also selected as the best of their field for 2008. Each of the products and their manufacturers were honored during an awards ceremony last week at the 17th annual National No-Tillage Conference in Indianapolis. Other winners were:
No-Till Equipment: Early Riser Planters, Case IH
Planter/Drill Attachments: Martin Row Cleaners, Martin Industries
Strip-Till Equipment: Blu-Jet StripTill System, Thurston Manufacturing
Spray Equipment: AGCO Spra-Coupe 7000 Series, AGCO
Residue Management: The Spreader, The Spreader Inc.
Fertility: Agrotain, Agrotain International
Insect Protection: YieldGard VT Triple, Monsanto
Fungicides: Headline, BASF
Seed Treatment: Cruiser, Syngenta Seed Care
Precision Tools: RTK AutoSteer, AutoFarm
Weed Control: Roundup PowerMax, Monsanto
Commodity Classic took place in Anaheim, CA. You'll find all of Chuck, Cindy and Joanna's photos here.
Happy Ag Week
It's time to thank our farmers and ranchers for all their hard work to feed us.
In this week's program I interview Linda Tank, CHS, Inc., who is Chair of the Agriculture Council of America, the group coordinating National Ag Day. Learn more about their activities, especially this week in Washington, DC.
I asked Stone to tell me what the mission of the new sustainability team was and he explained, “Our focus is helping growers produce more from less and to realize where they’re at in terms of not just how much they are producing but now much energy, water, soil loss and other impacts they are having from production.”
Water optimization also goes hand-in-hand with sustainability and Mader gave me an update on their technology that is close to market. “Our water optimization technology is on track and has made several technical milestones. We plan to introduce this technology in the 2011 planting season for growers in the plains and the Western cornbelt of the United States.”
and 
The term “resistance fighter” was coined in World War II to describe the underground guerrilla movement that actively fought against Nazi occupation, particularly in Yugoslavia, Poland and France. Today, resistance fighters are targeting a different enemy in the ground – glyphosate-resistant weeds. 
I learned more about the campaign, which is associated with Halex GT herbicide, from Carroll Moseley with Syngenta Crop Protection. “We directly affect and feed the population by controlling weeds in corn, this is a product for glyphosate-tolerant corn,” he said. “What better way to relate it to another direct way to impact people more needy than others than to have this Weeding Out Hunger campaign where we are contributing to feeding America affiliates across the United States.”
I learned what’s new with Syngenta Seeds from Wayne Fithian at the recent NAFB Trade Talk. He says that because of biotechnology the pace of new products is becoming more rapid. According to Wayne, they’re in the final stages of regulatory approval of their 
“They’re our primary customer at the end of the day and we can have the greatest technologies, the greatest genetics but if we don’t understand their business and the challenges they face, it could all be wasted,” said Agronomy Marketing Manager Bruce Battles at a recent ag media day at Syngenta Seeds new headquarters in Minnetonka, Minn.
Syngenta is going beyond drought-resistant corn to introduce water optimization traits, which will reduce the amount of moisture needed to optimize yield and minimize yield loss in drought conditions, as well as reduce water use in average years. Business Lead Corn Product Manager Wayne Fithian says this trait will help farmers be more productive and more sustainable. “Part of it is helping farmers do a better job of managing their environment,” Wayne said during a recent media day at the new Syngenta Seeds headquarters in Minnesota. “Sometimes it rains, sometimes it doesn’t rain and farmers get caught in this yo-yo of yields connected to rainfall. So if we can break that relationship and help farmers increase yield potential in times when Mother Nature doesn’t give them all the rain they want, then that would be a great thing.”
Agrisure Marketing Manager Tracy Mader says the pests are challenging because they affect all areas of the country and all growth stages of the plant. “The industry has done a very good job controlling corn borer root worm, but the next step is to control this group of broad lep pests, like black cutworm, that can attack the crop at the very early stages.” 
Principal Research Scientist for Insect Resistance Dirk Benson talked about Syngenta’s global research capabilities during a symposium for agricultural reporters during the grand opening event. “In Europe, we have insecticide development, we have herbicide technology development, in the US we have formulation development on the crop protection side,” Dirk said. “On the seeds and traits side, we have capabilities for biotechnology in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, we just opened a new site in Beijing, China to augment that. We do other seed research in Australia, we do some in Toulouse, France for our vegetable businesses, we do sugar beet work in Scandinavian countries.”
Why is this man smiling? Probably because he spends about half the year in Hawaii working on new corn seed hybrids for growers to plant back here on the mainland.
Ben told us that seed corn is now Hawaii’s biggest cash crop, and he was telling the truth. Just today, 
The CEO of Switzerland-based 
The beautiful start to the 
Governor Pawlenty was pleased to congratulate Syngenta Seeds on the new headquarters building and their continued commitment to agriculture. “They’re not making land anymore, so there’s a finite amount of land,” said Pawlenty. “That’s why it’s imperative that we find a way to continue to feed the world and Syngenta is on the cutting edge of that technology.”
Morgan praised the employees of Syngenta seeds for their hard work and commitment and recognized three exceptional sales reps responsible for $6-10 million in sales for the various Syngenta seed brands, including Garst, Golden Harvest and Northrup King. Morgan called the new building a symbol of the company’s increasing strength in the seeds business. “Our reputation is growing as a leader in agriculture and our new headquarters reflects our accomplishments and underscores our intent as we move confidently into the future.”
Welcome to the Grand Opening of the new Syngenta Seeds Headquarters in Minnetonka, MN.
In just a few days 
As many of you may know, 
Syngenta Crop Protection has redesigned the online face of the company, 
J.B. Penn, Chief Economist for John Deere, has been recognized for his efforts that have “impacted the lives and livelihood of the world’s population by meeting the growing need for food.”
The readers of 
It's time to thank our farmers and ranchers for all their hard work to feed us.
