How Customized Seed Treatments Can Improve Your Ag Retail Business

Blake Murnan By Blake Murnan|
CHS Facility Seed Treatment

STI Customized from CHS Agronomy offers customized seed treatments to give ag retailers a competitive edge.

For growers looking to maximize yield potential, a critical first step is using a quality seed treatment to protect seed and seedlings from environmental and pest pressure that can harm seedling health.

Advertisement

Pathogens, nematodes, and insects are just a few of the stressors that can kill or damage seeds and seedlings, resulting in poor nutrient uptake, reduced stand establishment, and potentially substantial yield loss. Continued advancements in seed treatments now allow us to protect the seed from a variety of pests that may affect health and overall crop yield, but as pest type and severity often varies by geography and year, depending on the environment, it’s challenging to anticipate and consistently meet the needs of your growers.

Top Articles
Rantizo Expands Drone Portfolio with XAG P100 Pro

That’s why CHS Agronomy provides two types of seed care options designed to fit the needs of different ag retailers. For retailers looking for ease and simplicity of use, CHS Agronomy offers high-quality formulated packaged seed treatments. But for retailers looking to create their own brand image and differentiate themselves in the marketplace, CHS Agronomy offers STI Customized custom blending services.

Greater Control and Flexibility

With the option to create more than 600 unique custom blends, STI customized can help you formulate seed treatments to meet the needs of your local customers on a field-by-field basis. With numerous fungicides, insecticides, nematicides, plant growth regulators, micronutrients, polymers, colorants, and conditioners, along with slurry rate options, you can create the ideal seed treatment for soybeans, wheat, rice, dry beans, peas, lentils and potatoes.

Sustainable and Cost Efficient

Custom blends are computer controlled for increased accuracy, creating a treatment based on your specific needs and geography. With help from your CHS Agronomy rep or seed treatment specialist you can choose the right combinations for a variety of crops.

It’s simple and efficient. Pick a fungicide package. Add an insecticide, or maybe a nematicide if that’s preferred. Select a color and add a polymer to improve flow ability and prevent skips in the field.

This focused control offers retailers the option to offer products that are easy to understand and manage and catered 100% to the needs of customers without any of the extras they may not need.

Better Service to Customers

Once a customized blend is created, it is packed and shipped from one of our three blending sites directly to you. Seed treatments arrive user ready, at the prescribed active ingredient rates, in either 120-gallon or 250-gallon returnable shuttles or one-way 15 or 30-gallon drums.

Because seed treatments come with the correct slurry or application rate, custom blends help eliminate mixing errors, reduce staff time, and lower inventory levels and associated costs, so you can spend more time on what’s most important – providing valued service to customers.

Whether you’re looking for a package seed treatment with a consistent formulation from a familiar brand you know and trust, or you want to offer greater differentiation under your own brand with a customized blend to provide more individual control and flexibility, CHS Agronomy has the seed treatment options to help you grow your business.

For more information on STI Customized, visit CHSAgronomy.com/Crop-Protection or contact your CHS Agronomy representative.

1

Blake Murnan is the Manager of Product Development for CHS Agronomy. In his role, Blake helps manage the development and implementation of the CHS Agronomy products which include seed treatments, micronutrients, and adjuvants. He has developed products and services such as STI Customized and private label packaged seed treatments, which has set CHS Agronomy apart from its competition. Before coming over to CHS, Blake spent thirteen years with West Central and an additional fourteen years in the Cenex-Land O’Lakes cooperative system including roles as a local agronomist, national seed treatment account manager, and proprietary products technical support and marketer. Blake holds a Bachelor of Agronomy degree from Iowa State University, and a Master of Entomology degree from the University of Nebraska. Blake resides in Bloomington, Minnesota where he is married and has two daughters. See all author stories here.

Advertisement