b'Make the Trend Your Friend ROBIN OMARAPRESIDENT, OMARA by Reimagining Your BusinessAG SERVICESromara60@msn.comomara-ag.com/THE SAYING GOES,the trendindustry entrants are investing is your friend. Well, Im not surehundreds of millions of dollars in Chocolate Chipmany in ag agree with that state- carbon capture, vertical farming, ment right now!gene editing and new online ag The trend since 2013 has beenmarketplaces. They see the trend Cookie Dough a steady erosion of commoditycreating new ways of doing busi-value and margin opportunitiesness and are working to restructure for farmers and seed companies.the value chain to their benefit.CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIEdoughLand rents, machinery costs andThe old ways dont work in with maybe a dose of red food coloring. Orinputs have remained stubbornlytodays environment. Farmers and perhaps red peanut brittle. Thats what thehigh while the commodity revenueseed companies need new solu-chunks in Jeffs bag of soybean seed lookedeach acre can generate has beentions, new ideas and new oppor-like. It doesnt want to plant, he said. I wantreduced by nearly half. tunities to generate a profit from my seeds to look like marbles or magicalThe industry was already tighten- every acre. Commodity prices have mystery beans.ing its collective belt when COVID- reached the point where only the Whether from a continuous drum or19 hit. The trend of reduced demandhighest producing acres are capa-batch type seed treater or an upstream orfor animal protein and ethanol wasble of generating a positive return downstream treatment application, everyoneaccelerated when the global pan- when using the farming mentality wants a seed treatment solution that will finishdemic shut down the world econ- from 2013.the seed well without making cookie doughomy. The record size of the 2020Elite marathoner Ryan Hall chunks. It is no mystery that the seed treat- U.S. corn and soybean crop all butwrote a book titled Run the Mile ing process needs time, air, heat, additives orensures lower commodity prices willYoure In. The idea is that you need some combination of these for a post-treat- stick around long after a COVID-19to see where you are now and how ment handling solution that retains the abilityvaccine is available.best to use that situation to your to separate and remove the chunks. This trend has certainly notbenefit, rather than dwelling onJeffs answer to eliminating cookie doughbeen a friend to farmers or seedwhere you arent.chunks is a fluidized bed dryer, the bestcompanies. Weve done exactly that at Gro post-treatment drying solution we have. ThisIf you look at the industry fromAlliance. Our launch of Breeder machine can accept wet seed directly from aa different angle, however, you willDirect creates new margin oppor-treater. It uses a gentle, fluidizing action alongsee plenty of evidence of thosetunities for seed companies and with high air-flow rates to singulate, separate,working to use the trend to theirwill help them take advantage of and dry wet seed. This is especially importantadvantage. Startups and newwhere the trend has taken agricul-during the tack phase of treated seed. Theture. We all need to find ways to fluidized bed produces a smooth, uniformreimagine our businesses during finish that results in improved seed flowability,these unprecedented times. When more uniform plantability, reduced equipmentwe do that, we just might be able to cleanup, less treatment transfer to bins andsay the trend actually is our friend! pipes, less dust-off and reduced clumpingYou can learn more about Breeder and bridging in bins and bags.Direct at www.breederdirectllc.com Adding a discharge-end scalping screen can assure that chunks that may have devel-oped during treating can be removed before packaging. The addition of heat can further improve the beds drying ability by expanding the airs capacity to take away moisture. JIM SCHWEIGERT If you want your beans to look like magicalPRESIDENT, GRO ALLIANCEmystery beans, a post-treatment fluidized bed@jim_schweigert dryer may be the solution for you.jim.schweigert@groalliance.comGroAlliance.com28/ SEEDWORLD.COMOCTOBER 2020'