b'MARTIN HORROCKS BASF DIRECTOR OF NA, SEED TREATMENT, BASFmartin.horrocks@basf.comagriculture.basf.us/crop-protection/use-areas/seed-treatment.html5 Goals Propelling Us This YearWITH EVERY PASSINGNew Year, resolutions come out withThink about it; we have to decide what treatments to work a bang. Weight loss goals, changes in diet, exercise commit- on, where to place the treatments, get the seed treated and ship mentspeople start making goals to better themselves for theit. Then, you need to sign agreements with cooperators and coming year. But what about business resolutions and goals?ensure everything gets planted. If you dont get a trial out or miss How are you already working to better your business this year?a particular protocol, youve lost a whole year. Unfortunately, you That question is important to me as I lead the Seed Treatmentdont get a second bite at it in agriculture. Making sure youre business forward. What goals do I have for my business thisplanned and ready is imperative for innovation.year? Well, when I got down to it, it is simple.4. Help Growers Know Whats in the Field1. Keep Customer Experience Top-of-Mind This might actually be my selfish goal, but one thing in particular Seed treatment, seed and chemistry suppliers have all beenweve kept our eyes on for a few years thats steadily getting looking to the same idea: what can we do for our customers,worse is soybean cyst nematode. Weve been working on edu-and how can we make sure they have an excellent customercating and helping soybean growers see the problem, but the experience? If you look across the whole industry, supply is adrumbeats are getting louder. The traits that are used to protect massive topic for everybody. Its hard to get products and itsagainst nematodes are starting to show weakness, and theres hard to get them on time due to shortages in labor and rawno new traits anytime sooncertainly not before the end of the materials.decade.Weve really fixated on getting ahead of that to avoid lettingWe ran a pretty extensive effort towards the end of 2021 anybody down. On the occasions when we cant get somebodycalled Soybean Cyst Nematode Action Month, where we gave what they want immediately, we need to be upfront and honestout free kits to let farmers sample their fields. In 75% of the fields with communication to help them run their business. In the end,sampled, average counts were high with over 2,000 eggs per its not about us, its about them.100 cc soil. To put that in perspective, we know that yield loss can begin to occur as densities as low as 200 to 500 eggs per 2. Think About The Team 100 cc soil. Those counts will rob yield from a farmer. Knowing Weve gone through a lot the last two years with COVID. Fromand understanding what problems are in the field is imperative working at home, hybrid schedules, kids in and out of schoolto ensuring correct seed treatment choice.Its important that morale is up. Theres a huge discussion on how to do that, but you must ensure people feel appreciated5. Think About Seed Treatments and Sustainabilityand theyre recognized for what theyre doing.Sustainability can be a buzzword, but its a topic thats really Our leadership team has been thinking about whether werehere and now. Not only that, but its become mainstream. Our doing enough to thank people for their efforts. Its not as easy asjob is to share the incredible value of seed treatments in ena-it was, but we still work to ensure were doing team activities andbling sustainable agriculture, and being able to clearly articulate were having some fun. I constantly ask myself: Are we actuallyour sustainability message. We have an incredible story to tell, helping each other through whats been a tough time? and I want to be sure were telling it and sharing it. Seed treat-ments are a major contributor to sustainable agriculture.3. Get Organized to Ensure InnovationHeres my parting questions to you: what goals do you have This happens around innovation every yearwe must get outfor your business? Are they helping you innovate, tell your story all our plots for the products were thinking of launching in two,and energize your teams?three, four, even five years time. If we dont get organized and plan, we could miss the windowthat means, we lose another year to bring innovation to market. Thats a real machine.INTERNATIONAL EDITION 2022SEEDWORLD.COM /39'