Victrato® Registration Expected This Year
Syngenta’s Dale Ireland and Katie Jaeger
“This will be the first product that’s federally labeled for Red Crown Rot as a seed treatment,” said Seedcare Technical Product Lead Dale Ireland at last week’s Commodity Classic. “This will set a new level of protection against early season foliar diseases as well as sudden death syndrome, so it’s really an exciting innovation and it’s going to set a new new standard.”
Katie Jaeger, Seedcare Product Lead, says registration this year means a full commercial launch in 2026 at the latest. “We’re preparing for a 2025 launch of the product, registration-dependent,” says Jaeger. “Worst case scenario, we’ll have it for 2026, but at this time we’re still preparing to have it in the market in the 2025 season.”
Learn more in these interviews from Classic.
Dale Ireland, Seedcare Technical Product Lead, Syngenta
Classic 25 - Dale Ireland, Syngenta Seedcare 3:49
Katie Jaeger, Seedcare Product Lead, Syngenta
Classic 25 - Katie Jaeger, Syngenta Seedcare 3:16
Industry Ag News 3/7
BioLumic Launches 1st Commercial Light-Activated Seed Traits
BioLumic, the world’s only company programming seed traits with light, has launched its first commercial Trait Activation System at Gro Alliance’s seed production facility in Cuba City, Wisconsin. This milestone brings the BioLumic proprietary light-based Genetic Expression Trait (xTrait™) technology to the global seed industry, enabling new opportunities for enhanced crop performance.
BioLumic’s trait activation system treats inbred corn lines at Gro Alliance’s Seed Production HQ
Following third-party field validation and demonstration of trans-generational trait inheritance to hybrid progeny, BioLumic light-activated traits are now being integrated into a broad portfolio of partner inbred corn lines. Multiple seed companies are licensing this novel technology, with commercial hybrid traits anticipated for the 2026 planting season.
“This launch represents a major step forward for seed companies seeking a new category of traits – traits that enhance natural genetic expression rather than altering the genome,” said Steve Sibulkin, CEO of BioLumic. “We’re delivering an entirely new way to program crop traits and accelerate breeding cycles—traits that are fast, economical, and scalable.”
Learn more in this interview with Sibulkin.
Interview with Steve Sibulkin, BioLumic CEO 8:45
A Mile High 2025 Commodity Classic
The 2025 Commodity Classic attendance was surprisingly close to a record. The last number I heard on my way home was 11,368 but it could have grown higher on the last day. Last year was a record at 11,530. Some of us were a little concerned about weather but it was mostly very nice. A storm system moved in on Monday afternoon but besides wind and a little rain, the snow went south of us.
We have a virtual newsroom for Classic on our AgNewsWire website. It has the link to photos I took as well as interviews and other audio like the remarks from our new Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. I want to thank Syngenta once again for making it possible to attend and get some work done! I wish I could have visited with everyone who sent me invites for booth visits or other activities. Once upon a time we could have Cindy, me and several of our freelancers attend and we were able to do much more.
A very useful tool has been our photo albums that we have in our Flickr account. There are 19 Classics in the collection which you can find here. I’ve been to more shows than that but before we started ZimmComm we were in radio and didn’t have much use for photos. Things have sure changed over the years! And we are very grateful for all the opportunities we have had to assist companies and organization with their communications and marketing efforts over the years.
Syngenta Offers Choices for Farmers
The Commodity Classic trade show saw thousands of farmers visit once again this year to learn what’s new in agriculture, and despite the tough farm economy, Syngenta’s Eric Boeck says the mood was hopeful.
“While farmers are facing some challenges and there’s very little margin for error for farmers, we realize that and we want to be there side by side with them helping them work through these challenging times,” said Boeck, Regional Director North America Seeds.
One of the ways Syngenta helps farmers is by giving them choices. “Agriculture has consolidated over a period of time to some major players and what Syngenta does is provides choice in innovation, choice in technology, choice in genetics, choice in crop protection and seed care products for farmers and that choice drives competition,” Boeck said. “And so that’s a key part of our business strategy is to make sure we’re working with regulators and the industry associations to make sure farmers have access to that choice of innovation.”
Boeck says the Syngenta pipeline is literally stacked with opportunities for farmers, like the two big announcements at Classic – the new Durastak Corn Trait for rootworm protection, and the new active ingredient PLINAZOLIN® technology, that can be used in insecticide products for cotton, vegetables, field corn, and more.
Classic 25 - Eric Boeck, Syngenta Seeds 5:39Precision Ag News 3/5
Bondioli & Pavesi, Inc. – E.D.I. (Electronic Data Interchange) Driveshaft – This groundbreaking technology improves power transmission efficiency while providing real-time monitoring and diagnostics, ensuring optimal performance in the field.
PTx Trimble – OutRun – This cutting-edge solution enhances precision agriculture by providing advanced guidance and automation, improving efficiency, reducing operator fatigue, and maximizing yields.
CNH America – IntelliSense™ Bale Automation & Large Square Baler Automation – This technology revolutionizes hay and forage harvesting by automating key baling functions, ensuring consistent bale quality, reducing operator workload, and optimizing productivity.
Trump Says Tariffs May Require Adjustment Period
In his address to Congress Tuesday, President Donald Trump said farmers may have to “bear with” him when it comes to tariffs on agricultural products, but he promises it will be worth it.
“A new trade policy will also be great for the American farmer. I love the farmer. We’ll now be selling it to our home market in the U.S.A., because nobody is going to be able to compete with you,” said Trump, doubling down on a Truth Social post he made March 3 telling farmers to “have fun” selling products inside the United States.
The president did admit it might take time to adjust. “The tariffs will go on agricultural product coming into America and our farmers starting on April 2nd, it may be a little bit of an adjustment period, we had that before when I made the deal with China, $50 billion of purchases and I said, just bear with me. And they did, they did. You really have to bear with me again and this will be even better,” said Trump. “So to our farmers, have a lot of fun. I love you, too.”
Trump to farmers in address to Congress 1:23AEM Gives Ag Market Update at #Classic15
The agricultural equipment market is facing the same challenges the overall ag economy and a lot of it has to do with uncertainty, according to Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) Senior Vice President Curt Blades.
“That uncertainty is leading to people feeling a little bit uncomfortable about making capital equipment purchases, so until we get rid of that uncertainty, that’s just sort of the market we are at,” said Blades.
The uncertainty includes the impact of the new administration’s tariff policy. Kip Eideberg with AEM’s Government Relations office addressed the issue of the 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada that were just implemented. “Tariffs are taxes on American companies, on American farmers, on American workers. They will drive up the cost of making equipment in the United States, they will make us less competitive in the global marketplace, and they are inflationary,” said Eideberg. “Canada is our largest market, so we are very concerned.”
Eideberg said AEM is preparing a report on the impact of tariffs on the industry to be released later this month.
Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) press conference – supply and demand, impact of tariff policy
Curt Blades, Senior Vice President of Industry Sectors & Product Leadership; Kip Eideberg, Senior Vice President, Government & Industry Relations & Communications
AEM press conference 15:22
New Durastak Corn Trait Stack Approved by EPA
Syngenta’s latest innovative corn trait stack for corn rootworm protection, Durastak™, has been approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and will be available in hybrids from both the Golden Harvest® and NK® brands, and through independent seed companies for the 2027 season.
Drew Showalter, Head of Corn Portfolio Strategy for Syngenta, is at Commodity Classic this week to talk about this new development. “The new Durastak trait stack is going to deliver more rootworm protection, more roots, and what farmers care about most, more yield potential over our current offer, which is great for farmers that are battling a really, really tough pest that’s constantly evolving,” said Showalter. “We’ve added rootworm protection, we’ve added a mode of action to our stack, and yet we’ve reduced the complexity.”
The new Durastak trait stack helps control damaging above- and below-ground pests with alternative modes of action for farmers to provide them a tool to delay insect resistance for long-term corn rootworm management. Durastak will also be delivered to the market in combination with Viptera® trait technology, the most effective above-ground insect control in the industry.
Learn more in this interview from Commodity Classic.
Classic 25 - Drew Showalter, Syngenta Corn Portfolio 6:04