Purchase With Purpose

Why Retailers Hold the Key to Farmers' Seed Buying Decisions

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 18:17:05 GMT

Stratus Research has been capturing research information on corn and soybean seed purchases for five years. In its latest report, Mike Weddel of Stratus says there’s one big takeaway.

“Nothing really happens unless a retailer is involved in the discussion,” he says.

For “Decoding Seed Decisions” the data collects all business models in the seed sales channel as being retail–farmer-dealers, seed agencies, and retail seed sellers.

Here are core takeaways:

1. Layers of marketing build success.

(Stratus Ag Research)

Weddel says the data highlights the key role retail plays in the seed purchase process, and when paired with other marketing, the success for a sale is amplified.

“There’s a combination of a retailer discussion and that farmer has seen traditional media advertising, then the effectiveness of that retailer discussion goes way up,” he says.

The report details how traditional advertising alone leads to 1% of the time a farmer will buy a seed brand. A conversation with a retailer/seed brand representative leads to 25% of the time the farmer will buy the brand. But paired together---traditional media plus the retail conversation—it’s 34% of the time a farmer will buy the brand.

Direct contact increases the sales success even more. If a farmer attends a plot tour, if a rep visits their farm, etc, the success rate is 55%.

“And when fully integrated—direct contact, traditional media, social and retailer involvement—it’s two-thirds of the time a farmer will buy a seed brand.

2. This creates a tension in how to invest in marketing.

“The great thing with traditional media is you can reach a lot of people, and you can with a very consistent message,” Weddel says. “But alone, it’s not as effective as tying it to the retailer discussion. However, while direct contact is the most effective way to influence a farmer’s decision, it’s expensive. You’re limited on how many farmers you can reach, and you have to be very selective about who you’re approaching using direct contact methods.”

3. There’s no “one and done” method.

“On average, when a retailer makes one farm call, or one contact, one interaction with a customer, they’re successful maybe a quarter of the time. But when they’ve had three interactions with a farmer, their success rate goes up to 75%.”

Weddel says you can look at it as the retailer will be more successful based on the number of times they’re willing to interact with the customer.

4. Retailer recommendations carry weight

(Stratus Ag Research)

Weddel says seed companies need to outfit their sales organization with four key resources: training, clear value propositions, product performance data, and confidence-building resources.

“It’s increasingly difficult to make money growing corn and soybeans. Commodity prices are low, so what farmers are doing is they’re changing their behavior in that regard. Yield and performance characteristics were always the most important thing when farmers were making a decision. But it’s even more important today,” Weddel says.

And he says the demands from farmers today when it comes to seed don’t stop there. In additional to performance, value is increasingly at the top of purchase decisions.

“What they’re doing in terms of the value, is making sure they’re getting the best value. Where they can, they’re working grower programs even harder to try to find where they can save some money. Once they’ve decided on a brand that they’re going to grow, they’re seeing if there are program opportunities to reduce the cost or save money.”

Weddel also says to expect farmers to shop around more for the best products at the best price.

Elevated Expenses and Supply Chain Risks Weigh on Crop Protection Outlook

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 15:52:22 GMT

In its annual crop protection market report , FBN highlights its outlook for pricing and supply trends.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty going into 2026, and you can contrast that to 2025, where tariffs were mostly known going into the spring,” says John Appel, FBN vice president of category management. “2026 is going to be structurally different. We saw that in 2025, at certain points, product prices were at multi-year lows, so there was no more to go down. But now the channel inventory has been largely depleted, we know that structurally these tariffs are going to come into place from a cost perspective.”

The FBN report gives price and supply outlooks for five active ingredients: glyphosate, glufosinate, 2,4-D ester, atrazine, and S-metolachlor. A project now for 10 years, the data used in the report is sourced from growers, FBN supply chain teams, and market reports.

(FBN)

Appel says there’s no “one size fits all” equation to how tariffs will affect crop protection pricing and supply chains as each active ingredient is sourced different. However, with a large quantity of AI coming from China for glyphosate and glufosinate, the pricing for those products is expected to increase with at least a 20% tariff.

“Others, like 2,4-D, you have significant duties on product like that, and on top of that, countervailing and anti-dumping duties that could be up to 170%, depending on the supplier,” he says. “That’s one product we saw significantly through our price data consistently get elevated throughout the year.”

(FBN)

FBN is advocating farmers implement a buy early mindset. Appel says the downstream implication will be suppliers delaying purchases until the product is needed for production to try to mitigate the risk of carrying inventory at unnecessary tariff levels.

“That could create product shortages once we get to springtime,” Appel says. “We look at the fall as the best time to buy to make sure we have very strong offers in the market with strong deals so that farmers can lock in supply and lock in prices for at least the essential products they know they are going to buy,” he says.

FBN focuses this report on herbicides as that product category has demonstrated the fastest growing adoption of e-commerce and online purchasing.

“Farmers are looking at the products that they probably know they’re going to need, and it’s very hard to grow a crop without herbicides,” Appel says. “Some of the other categories, like a fungicide or insecticide, are not really known what the pressure is going to be, so there’s more of a trend to buy some of those products in season as the need arises, especially in a time like this where, you know every dollar’s really going to count.”

(FBN)

7 Ways to Create Small Celebrations In The Crop Cycle

Mon, 13 Oct 2025 19:08:42 GMT

On The Scoop Podcast, Keith Byerly, commercial sustainability lead for Mosaic, says retailers need to celebrate their wins and take more credit for the recommendations they’ve made that have resulted in higher yields and profitability for their grower-customers. As farmers are harvesting their fields and thinking about their results, it is a great time for retailers to build their equity with their customers and humbly remind growers of how their recommendations helped grow a successful crop.

Here are seven ways to do just that:

1. Take the time to take a deep breath

“It’s this weird time where you’re trying to celebrate one production cycle coming to an end, and the good yields that are there or the okay yields that are out there, and it’s everything that we got from all the decisions that we made,” Byerly says. “At the same point in time, there’s not even a moment to catch our breath.”

He advises to make the space in your conversations with farmers to talk about the past year. Before jumping both feet into the year ahead.

2. Review the report card

Byerly recommends separating the production (the bushels) from the process (the decisions) that all culminated at the end of the season.

“Right after harvest, we jump into the decision-making process for the next cropping cycle,” Byerly says. “All of these decisions have started all over again, even though we don’t even get our report card back on the classes we just took. And it seems a little bit overwhelming, because it is.”

Byerly says a lookback at the season opens the conversation to build trust, improve on any oversights, and set a firm foundation for next year.

3. Maybe it’s more important now than ever

Byerly acknowledges the economic challenges in row crop agriculture, highlighting how a retailer’s job is beyond just agronomic products and services.

“It’s really important that the ag retailer is helping the grower celebrate, and being a little bit of that morale coach right now, helping find the good in everything that’s going on,” he says.

4. Problem-solve as a team

Things go wrong. Mistakes happen. Byerly offers how to keep any setbacks in perspective.

“It’s about getting the lows lifted up off the floor and helping keep those highs up there for our farmers right now,” he says. “But it’s also about building out that value right now, because we know that growers are faced with a lot of challenges as they look at this next production system. And the reality of it is most growers are probably going to have to find some places to reduce their expenses going into the next cropping system.”

5. Demonstrate value

Byerly spent 19 years in ag retailer, and he says a canon he returned to was providing value to the customer to the point where it was obvious how he differentiated his products and services to them.

6. Point out what went right

For Byerly’s geography in the western corn belt, he says there were more of a handful of things that went well for farmers this season.

“We have a lot of irrigation, but a lot of growers did not have to make those irrigation expenses at the same level that they’ve had to do in years past. The rainfall has been great. So, they’ve gotten some relief in that manner,” he says.

He also points to strong soybean yields, weed management, nutrient management and more.

7. Acknowledge you wear a lot of hats

“If we don’t step back from that retail side and take credit for the wins that we helped that farmer create, we really risk being compartmentalized as just, I guess, another salesperson that comes to the farm,” Byerly says.

On the list include: agronomist, data analyst, logistics coordinator, technology translator, financial strategist, and more.

“And at the same time, they’re the coach that’s keeping the team focused, that team of farmers that they’re working with, focused on what’s coming next, and that versatility that the ag retailer does on behalf of their growers is really what makes them indispensable,” he says. “But it’s also what makes it really easy to overlook when we do all of that work: the blocking, the tackling, the trench-level decisions, they just get lost in the shuffle,” he says.

Hear more on The Scoop Podcast

Momentum and Milestones: NewLeaf Aims to Double Sales Next Year

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 15:27:57 GMT

With more than 10 years of research and four years of commercial availability, NewLeaf Symbiotics is continuing to chart its own course in bringing row crop and specialty solutions via pink-pigmented facultative methylotrophs (PPFMs).

Its trajectory includes product placement on just under 1 million acres four years ago to having product on more than 8.5 million acres in 2025. Next year’s goal is to double that.

“We’re focused on the next thing, not just the right now,” says Brent Smith, CEO at NewLeaf Symbiotics. “But the right now feels pretty good”

The company recently opened a new formulation office with a larger footprint, advanced laboratories, and strategic location in St. Louis.

“Our success is because we got good at consistency with a tricky microbe class,” Smith says. “The focus is: formulation, optimization and performance. With that we will continue to be consistent.”

The company chose a novel go-to-market in licensing its technologies to partner companies for product placement and sales. Currently, it has a handful of technologies available via 100 commercially available products. The portfolio includes an EPA-registered bioinsecticide and biostimulants for row crops including corn, soybeans, cotton and peanuts, as well as a vegetative transfer biostimulant. Leaders says there’s more to come with launches for 2026, pending regulatory approval.

“We’ve found traction commercially,” says Aaron Kelley, chief commercial officer. “We have three launches in 2026, an EPA-registered biofungicide, nitrogen use efficiency technology, and a specialty biostimulant for transplant vegetables.”

Kelley credits trust built over time for the product growth. He points to the 70% win rate the company boosts as well as a two-year shelf life for its products.

“Every technology that becomes commercially available from NewLeaf has been field tested with multi-year, multi-location, plots of 10+ acres. We want our partners to have confidence in the products they are recommending to their customers.”

Kelley says biologicals can help farmers thread the needle with integrated pest management and layered crop protection.

“It’s been an interesting development to see how people are seeing biologicals as part of integrated pest management,” he says. “And there’s still more to learn and more yield to gain when our technologies are used along with others.”

FBN Spins Out Its Crop Protection Business, Focuses on Marketplace and Technology

Thu, 09 Oct 2025 15:01:57 GMT

Last week, just a few hours after Corteva announced its spin out dividing seeds from crop protection, Farmers Business Network (FBN) announced it is separating its businesses. Moving forward FBN will focus on its digital marketplace for farmers, and the newly launched Global Crop Solutions will be an independent supplier of crop protection products.

FBN leaders say the timing is coincidental. Their motive for the timing was brought about by the new fiscal year. But they offer both of the announcements together could be a sign of a trend of vertical integration getting unwound in the name of efficiency and focus.

“We’re doubling down, allotting capital on digital innovation for FBN’s future,” says Diego Casanello, CEO of FBN. “FBN’s core business is a digital commerce and fintech platform. We want farmers to be able to buy, finance, and market everything they need while sitting in their combines. These are technology challenges, so the core competence you need to be successful at FBN is different from managing the supply chain of the crop protection business.”

In the past 14 months, FBN has been refocusing its business. First, it spun off its insurance business, then its Gradable business into a joint-venture with ADM. Now with its crop protection business spin out, Casanello says the FBN marketplace will feature GCS products, such as Willowood USA branded products, via a strategic partnership, and GCS products will explore distribution beyond the FBN marketplace.

“The big unlock for GCS is the opportunity to serve the entire retail and co-op industry,” Casanello says. “It frees GCS of any channel conflicts and hits the ground running with one of the largest portfolios of products in the industry. And it frees FBN from similar constraints as we move to an open marketplace architecture. We are onboarding new sellers and their portfolios every week. We provide them the tools to manage pricing, marketing, and placement. FBN is open for business and we’ve had significant interest from additional partners before and after the announcement.”

FBN’s Marketplace Strategy

Currently, FBN says it has 120,000 farmer members in the U.S. and Canada. The business provides a marketplace with farm inputs and supplies, financial services and data-driven intelligence.

FBN co-founder Charles Baron says the FBN marketplace has expanded its product range to include crop protection, seed (with additional partner news coming soon), fertilizer, livestock products, veterinary pharmaceuticals, farm supplies and more.

“To farmers, there’s no change in their experience. And over time, we’ll bring an even broader assortment of goods,” Baron says. “You’ll be seeing announcements from us every two weeks or so about the suppliers coming on the platform. It’s one of the most exciting times in our history.”

The leaders say farmer use of e-commerce has increased every year since they launched, and in 2025 FBN served a record number of customers. “Farmers are really focusing on value right now and maximizing every dollar,” said Baron. And per their analytics roughly 35% of U.S. farmers visit FBN.com to browse inputs, apply for financing, or look for information.

The Future of GCS

As a newly formed independent crop protection supplier, GCS has a portfolio of 250 registrations on post-patent products. The company will specialize in sourcing, managing first mile logistics, developing new products and regulatory aspects.

To lead the business and its team, Amy Yoder, most recently EVP of FBN’s livestock division, is incoming CEO.

“Global Crop Solutions launches today as an independent powerhouse,” said Yoder, in a press release. “For the first time, our extensive portfolio and efficient global supply chain are fully available to all partners— from retailers, to distributors, to co-ops. Our independence unlocks immense growth potential and allows us to be the most reliable and collaborative partner to the entire agricultural industry.”

From Setback to Comeback: Sorghum Looks For More Market Opportunity

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 17:58:52 GMT

2025 has been a year of extremes for U.S. row-crop farmers, including grain sorghum producers. Many will harvest one of their best crops in recent memory – often referred to as milo – while they simultaneously endure some of the worst export markets agriculture has seen in the last four decades.

“There’s a lot of commodities that are hurting, I won’t deny that. But the loss of the Chinese market and any significant trade opportunities is more severe for sorghum than any other commodity,” contends Amy France, chair of the National Sorghum Producers (NSP).

That’s not rhetoric but reality for sorghum growers.

China historically purchased up to 90% of all U.S. sorghum exports. Those sales ceased in April, on the heels of tariffs and retaliatory tariffs. The remaining 10% of U.S. exported sorghum went to Africa to combat hunger. That market closed in January, when the Trump administration abruptly canceled the Food For Peace program.

Prices for the nutrient-rich grain dropped precipitously. Bids have been as low as $2.35 in key sorghum states, according to John Duff, founder of Serō Ag Strategies and a consultant to NSP.

For over a decade, China has been the No. 1 export market for U.S. grain sorghum. Countries in east Africa have been a distant second, while Mexico has been third. The National Sorghum Producers sees tremendous potential for trade with India. While the road forward will require patience it’s promising, as India became a net importer of coarse grains for the first time in modern history just last year.

(USDA)

Laser Focused On Opportunity
France is on a mission to move sorghum’s story from one of recent struggle to success. She’s working to identify new opportunities, expand upon those that exist domestically – such as with ethanol and gluten-free foods – and spur legislators to restore trade with China and other countries.

“We want trade first and foremost, but if we’re going to keep going with [these tariffs], then our farmers are going to need some help,” says France, who started her second term as NSP chair on Oct. 1.

The following week, in the midst of the federal government shutdown, France saw an opportunity for connection with legislators when others might have expected only closed doors. She flew to Washington, while NSP staff made calls to set up meetings with senators and representatives from the sorghum belt, which runs from South Dakota to South Texas, and includes Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Colorado.

“I want to ensure our producers and the next generation can continue to farm, and that equates to what we are doing on the Hill,” she explains.

A Fresh Perspective
France took a unique path to the leadership role for the NSP. The daughter of two music educators, she embraced agriculture when she met her husband, Clint, 25-plus years ago. They farm, along with their five children, near Scott City, Kan., growing corn, sorghum, wheat and black Angus cattle.

Through their local Farm Bureau, France recognized her passion for creating opportunity via agriculture policy.

“I always say Farm Bureau opened the door for me. I just got involved on the county level and then kept going. I’m not afraid to ask tough questions and dig deeper,” she says.

Some of France’s tenacity was inspired by her late father-in-law, Leon, who told her grain sorghum kept him from losing the family farm in the 1980s.

“He told me, when I went onto the board, it was the only crop he could afford to put in the ground, because it didn’t have as much input costs as other commodities, and he would reap a good harvest,” she recalls.

France keeps their conversation in mind as she works to build a better future for sorghum and the farmers who grow it.

“In navigating the current farm economy, I think about what crop can farmers afford to put in the ground and still reap a harvest? I believe sorghum is that for a lot of farmers,” she says.

“We have the best product – far and above better than what any other country can grow,” she adds. “We just need markets, and that’s what is top of mind for me.”

Your next read: New Seed Treatment Offers A Solution to Soybean Cyst Nematode

Fertilizer Decisions: Balance Costs, Yields and Sustainability

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 20:11:35 GMT

Illinois farmers will invest approximately $229 per acre on fertilizer for corn and $61 per acre for soybean nutrients in 2026, according to a recent survey conducted by University of Illinois agricultural economists.

The projected costs for growers are slightly elevated from 2025, reflecting farmer sentiment in Illinois and across the Midwest. Seventy-three percent of the 262 farmers surveyed expect higher fertilizer costs in the year ahead.

Fertilizer prices have come down from 2022 peaks but remain high relative to crop prices, notes Gary Schnitkey, professor and agricultural economist. That fact is what makes prices today such a high pain point for growers.

“If you go back and compare anhydrous ammonia prices to what they were in 2017 through 2020, they are still higher than back then, and we had roughly the same corn price. So you’re going to see that cause a tilting away from corn profitability,” says Schnitkey. He adds that the costs cited are based on data reported by the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS).

The next three slides show Illinois fertilizer costs for nitrogen, DAP and MAP, and potash. Paulson and Schnitkey say Extension economists in other parts of the country are also able to provide farmers with state-specific cost information for key nutrients:

Some individual farmers got bids for anhydrous ammonia earlier this month in the $730 to $740 range, Schnitkey reports.

(University of Illinois)

In the case of DAP, farmers have seen a “pretty significant increase from kind of the low $800 range to the high $800 range just in this calendar year,” Paulson says.