This Ag Retailer is Leveraging Sustainable Ag to Help His Farmers Stay Profitable in the Drought
Courtesy of Austin Leach
By PR Morris, Indigo Ag Technical Services Manager
With conditions on the ground changing due to extreme weather—for example, drought in the wheat plains—it’s more important than ever for ag retailers to find products and services that can help growers adapt and protect their yields. In western Tennessee, where drought has made plant emergence difficult, Austin Leach of MidSouth Ag Source has started offering Indigo’s biologicals and other sustainable ag programs that can help his farmers improve their profitability, despite the dry conditions.
Courtesy of Indigo Ag
Let’s start by talking about biologicals. What pushed you to try to start looking at biologicals?
Everyone in the industry has heard of biologicals, and there’s definitely benefits out there, but it’s a buzzword. We are a small retailer out of West Tennessee, covering areas through the mid south, and we were really looking at how we can offer more treatment options to our farmers. We’ve always been big in treatments and trying to stay on top of boosting nutrition, boosting root mass. My main focus was to find a treatment that would stimulate root growth and root mass and help with emergence. That’s why I started looking into biologicals. The standard metalaxyl and carboxin treatments are great for protecting the seed, but I was trying to get the seed out of the ground faster, with a bigger root mass for a more even emergence.
Let’s talk about the “crawl before you walk” approach and what that has looked like with your farmers.
We started with one product on one crop, Indigo’s biotrinsic® M34 on soybeans. It went really well. We did trials with wheat, as well. With corn, it’s more emotional. Farmers are typically more hesitant to test their corn with new treatments, but other companies are coming out right now with nitrogen fixation treatments. The industry seems to be looking into how to improve corn, so we’ve had a lot of curiosity from farmers, more than we usually do on corn, for a product that’s going to help with nitrogen capturization. When you show them the data, it more or less sells itself. In corn, as more and more companies get behind it – and with rising nitrogen costs – we’re seeing a lot of farmers look at how they can capture some additional nitrogen with a low investment in trialing biologicals.
Interesting. What impact are you seeing from Indigo’s biotrinsic(R) products?
In the photo I shared, you can see some of the effects of the biologicals that we’ve had. Tremendous success with the root mass system and the vegetative flower state. We had roots measuring up to 16 inches long per plant, and the plants were about 14 inches tall, so definitely available to get into the nutrients and into the water aqueducts in the soil and pick up stuff.
What we’re seeing too, is not only bigger roots, but we’re also seeing a lot more nitrogen nodulation on the root system. I’ve actually had a lot of customers come back to do side-by-side comparisons. We’re definitely seeing the plants picking up more nitrogen for the soil and expanding on that front as well. The biggest difference we’ve seen with these products is good growing conditions. No one can say the last couple years were pretty good. Last year was, I’m going to say near disaster on a lot of farms. We suffered a pretty extreme drought. But last year was probably our biggest increase in biotrinsic® sales and people actually seeing what the treatment did. On almost all of our double crop soybeans, we had zero replants. For other retailers in the county, a lot of beans didn’t come up, didn’t matter what brand it was, didn’t matter what treatment it was. We had a lighter stand, but we had, I’d say, 80% success rate with coming up. The direct tie to that was the biotrinsic® treatment. And I will say this, the farmers really noticed it and they’re really asking for it this year, so we’ve had really good success after that drought year.
Talking about competition, how does carrying biotrinsic® position you in the market as far as being competitive and something possibly your competition doesn’t offer?
Well, I think it’s something that gives you the leading edge. It is definitely something that makes us stand out from other retailers, with options that others aren’t offering. And you go to a farm and say, “Hey, I can protect that seed from the beginning with insecticide, fungicides, and with an inoculant to get it out of the ground, and then a biological to follow with a bigger root system that’s going to take up more nutrients, take up more water. Basically we’re going to get your plant off to the best start.” The farmers are very receptive to that. As far as on the competition side, I think it’s been very competitive in the market as far as the price of the product for the ROI that you receive.
In addition to offering biologicals, you’re also offering other sustainable ag programs to your growers, like a carbon program. What made you consider to offer a carbon program to your growers?
Carbon is definitely the buzzword. Everyone knows the word carbon, but that’s about as far as their knowledge goes. And I’ll be honest, I was one of them. We here at MidSouth Ag are trying to do anything new and innovative. Carbon programs are not new, but the carbon market has definitely grown by leaps and bounds.
I’d say probably the biggest thing that was intriguing to us about Indigo’s carbon program was the looser contract for the grower. It doesn’t tie down the grower or the retailer. Indigo has the simplest program for a retailer and the simplest program for your farmer to get enrolled to start getting paid.
And then at the end of the day, I feel like it’s going to benefit the farmer on multiple fronts on his farm, if it’s cash inflow, if it’s soil fertility, if it’s weed suppression. And then on top of it, hey, you might get a little extra money for changing a small practice. I really think there’s a very good benefit to it. There’s not going to have to be a huge practice change to do this and to get the benefit, to get the extra money and the added benefit on their farm.
Individual results will vary based on a large number of factors. See program agreement for additional payment terms, conditions and limitations.
Indigo and MidSouth Ag Source are separate, independent parties. MidSouth Ag Source is not an agent or legal partner of Indigo.