Industry Comments

How much of a challenge is it for today’s farmer when he continues to deal with high production costs?

J.D. Marbury
Tennessee Tractor LLC
Ripley, Tenn.

Without a doubt, everything in this world is increasing in price, and that certainly includes the technology we use to help out farmers. We believe that the precision-based equipment we sell can save on a farmer’s monthly chemical bill by 25 percent. We like to think that when farmers spend their money on this kind of equipment it will make them more efficient every day of the week in their operations.


Greg Stapleton
BASF
Dyersburg, Tenn.

Sometime during the past 20 years farming became a business. Farmers were already good businessmen, but there is no doubt that they are looking at new technology and will do whatever is necessary to maximize their yields and profitability. Companies need to understand what makes sense to the farmer, and we need to realize how commodity prices and input costs affect all of this.


Danny Childress
Bayer CropScience
Collierville, Tenn.

Given today’s environment for farming and the challenges that a farmer faces in production costs, it behooves all of us on my side of the business to help a farmer develop a plan that works best for him. In other words, if we can customize his needs, it helps everybody in the long run. It certainly can help the farmer make the best use of his expenditures. And ultimately it can help the chemical or seed company build a better relationship with the farmer. No matter what kind of products our company might have to offer, it’s all about developing a plan that makes sense to the farmer.


Steve Brown
Dow/Phytogen
Tifton, Ga.

There is no question that the increased costs of production are a concern to producers. However, the good news this year is that we have better prices and the opportunity for a pretty good crop. A farmer is always faced with a new challenge each year when it comes to unexpected production costs, and we certainly have it right now. It all comes down to a farmer doing the basic things necessary to deal with any new problems.


Scott Bollman
Monsanto
St. Louis, Mo.

Our company philosophy is pretty simple. We are totally dedicated to agriculture. If the farmer succeeds, we succeed. If he doesn’t succeed, we don’t succeed. Monsanto is trying to help the farmer with a lot of his costs with incentives such as the Performance Plus program. We want to do anything we can to help him with his everyday costs to stay profitable. The band-aid approach for one year isn’t what Monsanto wants for the farmer for a problem like weed resistance. The more desirable option is an integrated strategy that will work long-term.