USA
February 2004
Editorial by Tom Crowley, CEO, Landec Ag, USA
Major Achievements
Over the past three years, Landec Ag has commercially launched two new functional polymer seed coating technologies for the seed industry. Both of these applications are new technologies for the industry, offering seed companies and producers new ways to manage production risk and increase profitability. In addition, Landec Ag's Fielder's Choice Direct® brand continues to lead the seed corn industry in the direct marketing category with its highly efficient, unique, direct-to-the-farm business model.
Pollinator Plus®
The first Intellicoat® application, Pollinator Plus, is now in use on about 70,000 hybrid seed corn production acres by thirty major seed companies. In this application, the coating delays germination of the male inbred seed in order to widen the pollination window to minimize risks, and reduce production costs in the production of seed corn. Seed companies have rapidly increased their use of this technology in the U.S. during the last two years.
Early Plant® Corn
The second Intellicoat application, Early Plant corn, enables farmers to plant corn up to four weeks earlier than normal - by protecting the seed against the risk of chilling injury. The Early Plant corn seed coating provides a protective barrier around the seed that is impermeable to water in cold soils. The seed coating changes permeability based on soil temperature and becomes permeable when the soil temperature reaches optimum temperature for germination. Intellicoat Early Plant allows farmers to reduce planting delays, spread out spring workloads and maximize the full yield potential of their seed corn investment. Early Plant provides farmers increased convenience, insurance, and profitability. This new, patented seed technology is now available through seven popular seed corn brands.
Fielder's Choice Direct Branded Seed
Landec Ag's Fielder's Choice Direct brand continues to lead the seed corn industry in the direct-to-the-farm category. Over the last few years Fielder's Choice has transformed itself from a "discount" seed option for farmers to a full-service company, offering a complete line-up of top genetics, traits and seed-applied technology offerings. During the last three years Fielder's Choice has introduced over 75 new hybrids. In addition, Fielders Choice was the first seed brand to offer Intellicoat Early Plant in 2003, and is now offering 30 hybrids with Intellicoat. Fielder's Choice anticipates selling at least 5% of 2004 unit sales with Intellicoat Early Plant.
Fielder's Choice continues to offer seed through its unique direct business model with 30 professional seed consultants who are accessible to customers 15 hours a day, six days a week. During the last two years, significant efforts have been made to train and certify all consultants as Certified Crop Advisers. In addition, significant improvements have been made to the eDC™ system, allowing for aggregation of more localized hybrid performance data to be accessible to seed consultants for making better customer recommendations. Focus on all of these areas has made significant impact on product performance and the ability to serve customers. This progress was validated in the most recent Doane's Brand Image study, with notable ratings improvements for Fielder's Choice Direct in product quality and service.
Challenges For the Future
A challenge for the future of Landec Ag will be to make the Intellicoat seed coating application process transferable to seed company production facilities. Currently all of the Intellicoat coating is applied in Landec Ag facilities. As the Intellicoat demand grows, it will be more efficient for seed companies to do the coating in their plants as part of the seed production process. During the next 18-24 months Landec Ag will be working on a technology transfer program, which will make the process available for seed partners to integrate Intellicoat into an existing plant facility. The Intellicoat application process can be combined with seed-applied insecticides, so some efficiency can be gained by combining the two processes.
As we move to an era of many more products and product variations, the challenge for seed companies will be to manage the complexities that come along with rapidly increasing product offerings. With the added complexity, will come additional opportunities for companies who choose to manage it. Companies will need to become more operationally efficient in managing their product offerings and serving farmers. Companies will need to a better job of matching the best genetics with the appropriate trait and seed-applied technologies for their target markets. In some cases, this may mean that companies like Fielder’s Choice Direct will need to consolidate product and trait offerings.
In addition, Fielder’s Choice Direct must continue to add value by helping farmers make good decisions about which technologies are profitable for their operations. Companies who focus on operational efficiency, targeted marketing, and customer service will be the winners in this new environment.
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