Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68JANUARY 2017 37 MANY OF YOU might remember the old days when colour sorting was very black-and-white. Years ago, the first response to contaminated seed was to slow your machine down to do a better job. Like most other technology, colour sorting has become faster and more efficient. Now, you don’t slow the machines down; you should be speeding them up. They’re faster and more precise, partly because the industry has learned how to sort effec- tively. It seems counterintuitive. Why would you speed a machine up in order to get more accurate sorting? Wouldn’t it make sense to slow it down? No, because slowing it down creates more space between kernels. The result? A false positive reac- tion to the camera. The camera is seeing something it shouldn’t, so it fires. These days, there’s a lot of features that, in the past, seed companies could only dream of. A full range of optical sorting equipment is designed specially for grains, beans, pulses, spices, nuts, rice, vegetables and fruits as well as non-food products such as plastics, by sorting colour and shape with superior precision, perfor- mance and efficiency. With these advances has come the ability to remove grains diseased with contaminants like fusarium and ergot. Jason MacNevin Can-Seed Equipment Owner @jason_macnevin jmacnevin@canseedequip. com canseedequip.com PROCESSING EQUIPMENT COLOUR SORTING: IT’S COME A LONG WAY A good colour sorter — that is, one not filled with knock-off parts from abroad — can reduce fusarium levels considerably. I have seen fusarium levels go from eight per cent to less than two per cent in a single pass. Yield losses should also be low, in the less than five per cent range. I have seen cheaply made colour sorters leave the user with a yield loss as high as 35 per cent, and only running at half the speed. This is unacceptable. With regard to fusarium removal, we have had customers tell us that their ROI was less than three months running 24/7 at high volume. The upfront cost might be more, but in the long run, you will save substantial money by having high throughput and low yield loss. Colour sorters have come a long way, but not all are the same. Do your research and make sure you turn to a company offering sophisticated opti- cal sorting solutions that do the job they are intended for, and are not just lookalikes. NINETYPERCENT of all agriculture sales- people aren’t succeeding in today’s marketplace. I guess that’s no secret. This is my 44th year in the business and I’ve watched it all happen. Any company managers who have seen their customer bases shrink, sales ter- ritories stagnate, and profits decline, know what I’m talking about. What most of them don’t realize, however, is those downward trends aren’t caused by the changing market- place but, instead, by their own sales reps who don’t have the skills neces- sary to sell to today’s farmers. Field sellers have not stayed ahead of all the changes taking place in this market- place — they’ve fallen behind. How many sellers in your company get sales increases every year, regard- less of the economy, market prices, competitor programs or product perfor- mance? Less than 1 percent, I’ll bet. The bright side is that any field seller can “kill it” in this marketplace if they have the specialized skills needed to lead 21st century farmers. The old tech- niques no longer work. Ag sellers must learn how to take back control and lead farmers where they don’t know they need to go. That is the secret to success. Everyone keeps talking about the great opportu- nities in this marketplace. But for many companies this is not a time of opportunity — it’s a time of trouble. The way things are going right now, your customers are working to put you out of business and don’t even realize they’re doing it. That’s why company managers need to wake up and fix their selling force. When they stop fooling themselves into thinking that somehow out-of-date, untrained distribution systems are going to heal themselves and become effective selling machines, real progress will begin to take place. At that point, leaders will stop spending so much time creating marketing strategies and sales programs for sales forces that aren’t capable of using them and, instead, get their sellers into specialized training on how to sell to farmers. How much longer will you stand by and watch one, two, or three years of lost margins turn into a long-term trend? That’s the fastest way I know to pre- dict your future and, unless you fix your sales force, it’s not a bright one. Rod Osthus R.C. Thomas Company President @RodOsthus rod@rcthomas.com rcthomas.com SALES COACHING IT’S NOT THE MARKETPLACE — IT’S YOUR OWN SALESPEOPLE