Joseph Rickard is a crop protection product manager at WinField United who shares the past three years have definitely taught us one thing about the ag retail industry—it’s still a face-to-face business.
Rickard says in his role, which focuses on product training around seed care and biologicals, the virtual meeting tools such as Zoom or Teams can be helpful, but can not be relied upon.
“For a lot of sellers and grower customers that we work with, they still say this is a personal business–it’s a face-to-face business. Growers want to see somebody, talk to them, and shake hands,” he says.
Rickard shares more in The Scoop Podcast:
Rickard has been with WinField United for 12 years, but he changed roles 18 months ago. As one of six product focused trainers at WinField United, he acknowledges virtual meetings aren’t going away, but he wants to encourage everyone to rely on them appropriately. Particularly with his territory that stretches from Illinois to Maine and from Michigan to the southeast, Rickard spends a lot of time on the road to meeting with retail sellers and growers about products.
“What led me to agronomy is being able to be a problem-solver,” he says. “I shadowed under an agronomist, and I saw this is where I wanted to be. And I really like that it’s something different every day.”
And he says, “All agronomy is local. We have to continue to be a student of the game, and never stop wanting to learn new things.”
Regarding his work with seed treatments, He’s proud of the launch of Warden CX2, which he says is a Cadillac of seed treatments providing a fungicide, insecticide and multiple modes of action.
He also shares, “biologicals as a space is a pioneering frontier for agriculture. We’ve put together a biological directory to help subcategorize them based on their use.”
Looking into the rest of the year, Rickard encourages retailers and farmers to continue to seek out opportunities for yield.
“It’s our job to help farmers keep their foot on the gas when they are looking to drive more yield,” he says.
