Latest News From Margy Eckelkamp

David Muth of Peoples Company Capital Markets, the Investment platform for Peoples Company, shares how institutional investors have reacted to higher interest rates on their land investments pursuits.

Dr. Vince Malanga shares insights on the U.S. economic outlook, and what areas demand the most attention.

“When we can figure something out, come up with a solution, and then see it works with real yield data to show our decision made us money and we fixed an issue—that’s when it’s fun," says Jeff Kloucek.

The vice president of strategy role is in charge of identifying and refining corporate strategy as well as cross-selling within the company. 

BioTek Ag, which was based in North Carolina and had been in business for more than 30 years, will become part of Custom Agronomics, a formulator and manufacturer of private-label products.

Kyle Meece, agronomy manager at United Prairie, talks about how he is working to be two to three years ahead of other retailers.

To bring new ways to connect its agronomy insights with customers, Growmark and 29 of its member FS companies are launching the myFS Agronomy app in conjunction with Intelinair.

Gingko Bioworks announced its acquisition of platform assets from AgBioime, which includes over 115,000 fully sequenced and isolated strains, over 500 million unique gene sequences

In early April, the companies confirmed they have discontinued discussions of potential synergies and opportunities. 

Tom Snipes, former CEO of Plant Response, has been named the new leader of Custom Agronomics.

TFI’s Certified Biostimulant program is aligned with the U.S. Biostimulant Industry Guidelines.

Tim Hushon, sustainability and technology director at The Mill, details how sustainability factors into their ag retail business and how to partner with farmers on the technology adoption required.

Farmer and philanthropist Howard Buffett held a fireside chat during the 2024 Top Producer Summit to share his experiences visiting the front line of Ukraine over the past two years.

As Chris Terris, VP and Global Head, Animal Agriculture & M&A Growth at Telus Agriculture & Consumer Goods, explains, this acquisition’s complexity led to how the integration unfolded. 

Quickshot is Helena’s newest entrant in the field, which provides seed fluency in addition to crop nutrient package. For 2024, it’s available in limited quantities.

Hunter Carpenter says this was the most successful fly-in for ARA yet.

Tyler Mitchell, agronomy account manager at River Valley Cooperative in Davenport, Iowa, details the daily complexities he and his team unravel for farmers as they serve as boots on the ground.

After launching an initial “frontrunner” a group in Illinois, Bayer says its Crop Science division is ready to roll out the company’s new operating model, Dynamic Shared Ownership (as it’s known internally, DSO).

“We are talking about fuel produced in 2025, but that is going to use the crop we are growing this year,” Mitchell Hora says.

“The single most important tool to predict peak performance is a very well-developed job description,” Dave Mitchell says.

Uncover industry trends in key ag retail roles with the results of The Scoop’s annual salary survey.

“We are really in a second phase of ag tech,” says Ryan Raguse, co-founder of Bushel. “We aren’t in an overly mature state—we’re still somewhere in the middle ground."

The industry had been buzzing of the news since late November 2023. 

“We are a high-impact, mission-driven, life-science company with three strong businesses, but we have four challenges that urgently must be addressed,” said Bill Anderson.

This is a new seed lubricity agent applied at plant as a talc/graphite replacement which also provides a micronutrient package (5% phosphate, 1% iron, 3% mnagenses, 2.5% molybendum, 10.5% zinc.)

“Our mission is to improve and expand our program to create additional opportunities for even more American farmers,” said Leonardo Bastos, Senior Vice President of Ecosystem Services at Bayer Crop Science.

Benefits include reducing crop residue build-up on the soil surface, resulting in improved planting, seed placement, and germination.

The company sees this new formulation as a potential replacement for liquid seed treatment. 

The company says its year-over-year growth includes more farmers paid (215% increase in new growers), more fields enrolled (333% more new acres and a 297% increase in new fields) and more credits produced each year. 

To date, tens of thousands of acres have been planted with SIMPAS-Applied Solutions (SaS) through the SIMPAS application system.

Evan Fust says his team is ready to take on the challenges alongside their customers with a new go-to-market structure.

D&M Chem was founded in 1997 by brothers Dee and Mathias Gargus. Both leaders will remain with the newly formed D&M division of The McGregor Company along with their 30 employees. 

As previously reported, FBN’s board had launched a search for the next CEO for the company.

“We’re living in a world where it’s just a matter of time,” Harlan Asmus says referencing the development of resistance.

Dynamic Shared Ownership reduces the layers and brings the business management closer to the customer.

The program is structured so farmer users of Pivot Bio Proven 40 can participate in annual carbon insetting partnerships as a result of their change in practice.

On February 14, the EPA issued an existing stocks order for dicamba products previously registered for over-the-top use.

With more of a focus on digital marketing, Morgan Seger says it’s about recognizing what has changed, but also what has not.

In research trials in corn, Helena says Zypro in a sidedress application provided an 83% win rate and a 5.8 bu/acre increase. Zypro is compatible with fungicides, insecticides, and other common tank-mix partners.

“It’s hard to put yourself in growth mode when things are getting so expensive,” says Tanner Ehmke with CoBank.

“When the court issued the order, it vacated the registrations for those Dicamba products nationwide,” Richard Gupton says.

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No step is too big for Top Producer finalist, PJ Haynie. Deep family roots are the foundation of his farming legacy. 

This roundup of almost two dozen product combinations gives details on dry formulations meant for use in corn or soybeans that replace or layer with the same company’s traditional seed fluency blends.

This is the first year a biological has been voted new product of the year by The Scoop's readers.

On Monday, February 5 the news of Bill Northey’s passing quickly spread through the agriculture industry, of which he dedicated his professional life to serving.

One of the five things the "retailer of the future" would do is “offer new inputs.” Maybe your future is now.  

To get a measure of what an average ag retail location looks like, the Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) partnered with The Scoop to gather data to better understand retailer attributes and behaviors.

“We can move so much faster. By our estimates, less than 2% of farmers are participating in these programs industry wide,” Truterra president Jamie Leifker says.

The first year event was hosted in Huntsville, Ala., and attracted 800 attendees.