Just over four years ago, AJ Woodyard, joined the BASF team as a young, driven and enthusiastic scientist. Since then he has continued to bring his excitement for the agricultural industry into helping growers get every penny out of their investment.

In this BASF Personality Profile, we get to meet AJ and learn more about his background and passion for crop science. He grew up in East Central Illinois on a 1,500 acre corn and soybean farm in Paris. He attended the University of Illinois, graduating with a crop science degree. He then jumped right into a masters program where he focused on weed science.

While in graduate school AJ, got the opportunity to work on some of BASF’s experimental projects and that is what got him excited about the company. He joined the BASF team in December 2008 after finishing his masters. His first role was technical representative for Central and Southern Illinois. But recently took on the role as Technical Crop Production Specialist. AJ now focuses on high yield corn and soybean management strategies.

“Being somebody who was born and raised in the agriculture industry and still is a part of a family operation, it’s really rewarding to me to have the opportunity to work directly with growers. Especially, looking at their challenges and their successes and be able to bring new solutions to them that can help their operations. That’s the most rewarding part, being part of an innovative company that brings new solutions and can help them eventually raise yields and make more money.”

You can listen to my interview with AJ here: BASF Technical Crop Production Specialist AJ Woodyard