Scott Kay, Vice President of U.S. Agricultural Solutions at BASF, joined The Scoop podcast to reflect on takeaways from the 2024 growing season and give a look ahead for what’s next.
As he thinks about 2024, he is reminded of a growing season that held a lot of promise, but the level to which that promise was delivered varied greatly by geography. Kay also says farmers are carrying a heavy trifecta of factors top of mind into a new growing season: lower commodity prices, elevated production costs, and interest rates.
“In this environment, most farmers are talking about needing a few more bushels because it is really getting harder to pay to make everything meet if you aren’t doing that,” he says. “That yield target really will set the tone of the planning process for 2025.”
Looking ahead to 2025, BASF is continuing its goal of long-term commitment to innovation, research and development—giving farmers the right technologies for decades to come. Kay focuses on a handful of those.
First, financing, which BASF has brought forward its own offer.
“BASF looked ahead in the 2025 season, and we really believe that financing decision will help farmers continue to make the right decisions on their farm,” Kay says. “So we’re offering 0% financing. We’re doing that with harvest terms. So I think hopefully farmers get a know how much we appreciate them and their business.”
Second, Kay says seed portfolio growth across their soybean, cotton and canola products is driven by successful placement and advanced technologies.
“In a couple of years for the first time in 40 years, BASF will be delivering an SCN trait—one that people have never seen before,” he says.
Third, Kay advocates farmers and retailers rethink how crop protection decisions can elevate agronomic performance and reach yield goals.
The past year has brought two herbicide approvals from EPA—Liberty Ultra and Surtain herbicide.
Kay says the opportunity for weed control is punctuated by clean fields and a complete program to find more bushels by improving weed control in the year ahead.
As for fungicides, he encourages retailers to position this as a branded decision, and farmers to think specifically about product placement.
“When farmers make decisions on fungicides, I kind of wrinkle my nose up a bit, because that’d be like farmers saying they’re making tractor decisions. I don’t, don’t know, many farmers make a tractor decision. They buy a brand,” Kay says. “So I think the same way about fungicides. I think some farmers make ‘fungicide’ decisions because they don’t know they could make a Veltyma, Revylok, or Revytek decision.”
Kay says the technology provided by their Xarvio platform helps underscore the timing and placement for seed and crop protection to elevate yields, and build trust.
“We want to make sure we’re building confidence on the placement, because that makes a huge difference in the outcome. And so we have Xarvio field manager and seed select tool,” he says.
In the future, he sees more technology embedded in the agronomic decisions to aid in timing, specifically.
“It’s not the ability to track in-field, but to link a decision you made with the next one more quickly,” he says.
And there’s more to come from BASF with the One Smart Spray project, which start to have machines become available soon.
Hear more details from Kay about other topics including dicamba, the value of data, BASF’s business structure, and more on The Scoop Podcast.
