In 1982, two friends named Roger Underwood and Jeff Becker started a little company that bore their names with a single product. Several acquisitions and 30 years later, Becker Underwood is a global leader in the development and commercialization of seed-applied biological products and is now part of the BASF Crop Protection family. “It’s been quite a ride particularly over …
BASF on Becker Underwood Acquisition
The acquisition of Becker Underwood by BASF brings together two market leaders in the areas of innovation, crop protection, seed and biological technology, which means a broader range of products for growers to increase yields. BASF VP US Crop Protection Paul Rea says Becker Underwood technology is complementary to BASF’s existing product portfolio and raises the bar for plant health …
Bayer Announces Bee Care Center at ASTA
The seed may be first, but bees are still important when it comes to agricultural production and Bayer CropScience was pleased to announce plans for a new North American Bee Care Center during last week’s American Seed Trade Association expo. The company plans to break ground in February 2013 on the center which will serve as a gathering place for …
Syngenta & ASTA Help Feed Chicago Kids
We talk a lot in agriculture about feeding a growing world population but Syngenta and the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) brought that broad message home during this week’s CSS 2012 and Seed Expo in Chicago. “We tend to think about hunger as being something that happens somewhere else, but it happens in our own backyard – it happens here …
Economic Review and Outlook at ASTA Expo
The American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) annual Corn & Sorghum and Soybean Seed Research Conference (CSS) and Seed Expo this week boasted a record 2,800 attendees and 150 exhibitors who were all excited about the future of the seed industry despite this year’s calamitous drought. During the general session on Thursday, AgResource Company president Dan Basse looked at the year …
Enlist E3 Soybean Brand Announced at ASTA
Developing new technologies to deal with herbicide resistant weeds is a major directive for agricultural crop protection companies, and a big announcement in that arena was made this week at the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) CSS 2012 and Seed Expo by one of the event’s major strategic partners, Dow AgroSciences. In collaboration with M.S. Technologies, Dow unveiled Enlist E3™ …
CropLife Foundation Previews Study at ASTA Expo
CropLife Foundation (CLF) is publishing a comprehensive report next year on “The Role of Precision Seed Protection in Modern Crop Production” and preliminary findings of the report were presented today at the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) Corn & Sorghum Seed Research Conference 2012 & Seed Expo. CLF chairman of the board Jay Vroom says the report outlines the benefits …
ASTA Looking Toward the Future
The American Seed Trade Association is looking ahead to the future of the seed industry and developing a new long range plan. “We’ve always had a five year strategic plan which gives us direction for where we want the association to go and it was time to refresh that,” said ASTA immediate past chairman Mike Gumina of DuPont Pioneer. To …
ASTA Update on The Accord at Seed Expo
Patents for the very first ag biotech “events,” as they are called, will be expiring and becoming “generic” in 2015. This creates opportunities for growers and the seed industry, but also creates challenges that must be addressed – and that is the purpose of “The Accord”. American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) Vice President for Science and International Affairs Bernice Slutsky …
BASF & Becker Underwood Join Forces at Seed Expo
It was just last week that BASF finalized the deal that brought Becker Underwood into The Chemical Company’s fold, just in time for them to hold a press briefing at the American Seed Trade Association CSS 2012 and Seed Expo to outline their plans for the future. Left to right, we heard from Scott Kay, BASF Canada Business Director; Peter …