The 2012 Farm Progress Show gave Koch Agronomics the opportunity to showcase its acquisition of AGROTAIN really for the first time to this audience, since it was just finalized in October of 2011. We got to find out more about Koch and how AGROTAIN fits with that corporation during a media breakfast at the show.

VP of commercial operations for Koch Tom Snipes explains the acquisition of AGROTAIN was a natural fit for his company. “With this new platform [of Koch’s agribusiness delivery system] that we established a couple of years ago, we really feel like by adding the resources around our [research and development] function, agronomy function, and things like that, we’re really going to be in a great position to bring a lot of innovative nutrient management technologies to the grower,” he said. It’s his first visit to Farm Progress Show, and he’s amazed and excited to be there. “We’ve got a huge opportunity to educate the grower on nitrogen management.”

Listen to Cindy’s interview with Tom here: VP commercial operations Tom Snipes

Koch’s Director of Agronomy Greg Schwab echoes his colleague’s thoughts about nitrogen management, especially in light of this year’s drought. “This year was pretty rough for farmers, but we’re hoping that they’re going to be focused on next year,” he says. He warns about some of the issues going into the fall because of the dry weather. He urges farmers to wait until they have good soil moistures and temperatures of less than 50 degrees 6 inches down, a real concern with the hot weather this year. Schwab says he was very excited the day he learned Koch would be acquiring AGROTAIN because he had worked with AGROTAIN during his time at the University of Kentucky. “It was a great day when I was able to call those guys and say we’re going to be colleagues!”

Listen to Cindy’s interview with Greg here: Director of Agronomy Greg Schwab

2012 Farm Progress Show Photo Album