In the six growing seasons since being formed as one entity, Brett Bruggeman, president of WinField United, says the organization has been able to accomplish its mission, and he highlights how it’s eyeing the changes to be made to prepare for the future.
Boiled down, he says the biggest changes are new markets coming on two fronts:
- Outcome-based crop level values. “For example, this includes carbon levels, grain starch levels, grain protein levels,” Bruggeman says. “It’s the new markets that help the grower take advantage of what’s happening downstream with some of the food companies looking to pay for those premiums.”
- Risk management. “We redesigned out Answer Plots to really turn those into actuary tables. It’s all about how to increase predictability and try to take as much risk out of farming as you can,” he says.
Bruggeman says now is the time to view these trends as the future of serving “the grower of tomorrow.”
Specifically, WinField United is look to amp up their services to include economics as well as agronomics.
“Our retail owners and their 4000 retail sellers have always taking taken an agronomic leadership position,” Bruggeman says. “We’ve expanded our strategy to add not only to our agronomic leadership and also an economic part. It is really the expansion of what we call ‘building digital solutions’ on products, services and connections.”
He appeared on AgriTalk to announce the new strategy:
He adds, “Our retail owner really pushed us in this area to say let’s move to a new scalable asset that’s differential in the market.”
As building blocks to help springboard WinField United with the new strategy, he points to the 200,000 acres enrolled in the company’s carbon program. He says they also have 200,000 acres in the Advanced Acre Rx program, which is a warranty program on crop inputs. Additionally, the company’s Answer Plots, which serve to provide a lot of its background data, have been active for more than 20 years.
“In the crystal ball, it could go 1,000 different ways,” he says talking about what the retailer of the future looks like. “I think where we’re at is we’re focused on how do we make it feel and look like a one-step that has the efficiencies but also takes the opportunity to use that retail seller right that point. You need market access–you need people that are going to sit down and consult and be that trusted advisor with the grower.”
Bruggeman says now is a great time to get more efficient and more resilient in how retailers serve farmers.
In the past year, 90% of the company’s business was conducted using its Evolve software, which digitizes every transaction and provides for greater tracking of orders through the system. As a result of that progress and other initiatives, the company took more than 1 million miles out of its supply chain network.
Regarding this upcoming season, Bruggeman says it’s the year to get things right the first time.
“Because of the planning and things that we’ve done, we’re really in a good shape as far as getting the crop inputs farmers need. Now what I would say is two things. Number one is you may not have exactly the brand you want or the SKU that you want, but there’s going to be enough weed killer and enough fertilizer. It’s just going to take some planning efficiency. The second thing I would say, which is probably the most important, is making sure we get it done right the first time–resprays, getting a pre down and the fungicide right it’s just so important we get it done right to begin with,” he says.
