Growers have more decisions than ever before to make on the farm and that is why BASF is going beyond crop protection with a new approach to working with farmers and improving their business and it’s called Grow Smart.
“Growers want more than just a product on their farm,” said Bob Yaklich, Grow Smart Marketing Lead for BASF, during an ag media tour of the company’s Midwest Research Farm in Illinois this week. “They really want information and knowledge to make better business decisions to help them get the most out of every acre.”
Yaklich says the Grow Smart approach is based on four Ps – people, portfolio, personalized, and protection. “First and foremost, getting the people together in the right manner that creates that feeling of a good solid relationship,” said Yaklich. “BASF having a good portfolio is the basis of that conversation. Next is the personalization, a recommendations that’s meaningful for that grower in his operation.” The final piece, protection, has to do with how BASF can help growers by sharing some of the risk they take on every growing season. Interview with Bob Yaklich, BASF
The lovely and talented Caren Schmidt, BASF Technical Marketing Manager for fungicides, says the Grow Smart approach also entails research trials across the country to study how the BASF portfolio can work together with the best agronomic practices and latest technology to help growers. “Here on the research farm, we have small plot research where we combine the BASF portfolio of products – herbicides, fungicide, inoculants, nitrogen protection – and put it together with agronomic practices like populations, planting dates, hybrid and variety selection to try and see incremental benefits and find better recommendations to give to our growers,” Schmidt explained. Interview with Caren Schmidt, BASF