DECEMBER 2017 SEEDWORLD.COM / 75 IN THE GLOBAL market, Nufarm has been an independent player in the seed treatment business for more than 40 years. In the past 10 years, we’ve been investing our resources in the U.S. market to understand our customers and the products they supply. As a supplier of off-patent chemistries for seed-applied crop protection prod- ucts, Nufarm Americas likes to work with like-minded seed companies and chemi- cal distributors. We are finding a great deal of like- mindedness in the seed industry. Perhaps our greatest sense of like-mindedness is the independence and freedom we and our customers share to provide products selected on what will best serve farmer customers. Nufarm provides products in three forms. Basic, straight active ingredients are available for customers who have their own blending lines and produce their own seed treatment products. For customers wanting the simplicity of premixed products, Nufarm provides registered combinations using registered products that are blended in the right proportions with the proper polymers and colors. These products minimize EPA paperwork and are available to seed com- panies and distributors over-the-counter through our channel partners. Finally, for customers wanting a cus- tom-made, private label seed treatment formulated for their specific environment, Nufarm has the experience and knowl- edge to create a product that will perform as well or better than mass-market prod- ucts costing three or four times as much. We have found a like-minded attitude with our customers toward product qual- Working with Like-Minded People TIM BIRKEL NUFARM AMERICAS VICE PRESIDENT STRATEGIC MARKETS AND ACCOUNTS tim.birkel@nufarm.com • nufarm.com/USST ity. Every seedsman I have ever known takes pride in delivering high quality seed. We have the experience to know what can go wrong with a seed treatment product from production, active ingre- dient stability, and flowability, and the knowledge to make sure it never does. We have spent time with our active ingredient suppliers and the suppliers of soft products - polymers, flow agents, col- orants, etc. – to make sure our products will work with seeds and not clog seed produc- tion plants or plug farmers’ planters. We are not just another supplier offering cheap prices. Nufarm has put together a quality business to develop quality products that perform. We and our customers have a like-minded atti- tude toward quality. We both strive for achieve the highest standards for our products. HAVE YOU EVER thought of selling your company, or might you be part of a merger? One consideration that comes into play is your data, and its mismanagement, or rela- tive inaccessibility, could actually devalue your company. There are many aspects that go into the valuation of a company, some of which include future prospects of the busi- ness, the risks of the business and the cost of capital. But for any seed company, it’s the germplasm that’s worth the most. What’s the potential of that genetic material? Is it $5 million? $10 million? Maybe $1 billion? If a potential buyer asks the value of your germplasm, are you prepared to give a response, and do you have the data to back it up? Any experienced breeder can look at the data and get a sense of how the program has been managed. As an example, a potential buyer asks to see the data associated with the Top 10 lines. The breeder with Company A has to sort through piles of Excel sheets and then transfer the data to another sheet so it’s all in one place. The breeder with Company B hits a few keystrokes and automatically pulls up the Top 10 lines and all associated data. Now if you’re the buyer, which breeding program do you want to inherit? It’s a “Trust me, it’s all there” situation versus being able to say “Here it all is. Do you need anything else?” If the data isn’t very useable, it’s going to cost the buyer. For instance, we met a cucumber breeder in the U.S. who had just started with a company. When he arrived, he found all the data in old binders and cryptic sheets — not even in Excel! The data was not in a form that allowed him to use it. This was just this year, not back in the 1970s. The information there might be valuable, but it’s hard to decipher and use. As a breeder, you should be able to easily pull requested data (all parents or all populations) and show it to a potential buyer. You might also have to prove there is no patent infringement. The best way to prove this is to have a highly relational database where nomenclature is standard- ized and one can search by variety name or number and everything associated is called up. As a new owner, if this step is ignored, the penalties could end up costing you more than what you paid for the company — not a comforting thought. If you have a strong, well-organized database, this increases the value of your germplasm and genetic material. When you consider all this, the cost of plant breeding software is minimal; it has the potential to pay back 10:1 or maybe even 100:1. Properly man- aging your data in a highly relational data- base has a compounding effect over time. If you have good material and you have the data to back it up, companies will line up to buy it. So How Much Do You Think Your Seed Company Is Worth? DIETER MULITZE AGRONOMIX PRESIDENT, CEO AND FOUNDER @Agronomix • mulitze@agronomix.com • agronomix.com