CUSTOMER STORY

Adding Value to the Traditional Dealer-Customer Relationship

The Challenge

For 75 years, Latham Hi-Tech Seeds has put farmers first, striving to provide customers with the seed genetics they need with speed and agility. The goal is to help farmers achieve maximum profitability by successfully choosing the right hybrids and varieties for their farms.

To get the highest performance from every acre, farmers must know what each variety needs and where it thrives. There are many factors that go into seed selection, including soil type, water availability, and fertility. Understanding the efficiency points of these variables can help growers focus on their highest potential return on investment.

“Up to 20% of yield – in corn or soybeans – comes from proper placement,” says Phil Long, Precision Agronomy Advisor at Latham Hi-Tech Seeds. “Almost any time we see a farmer say they aren’t planting a product again after under performing, it’s because it really didn’t fit the environment where it was placed. Having more data about each product allows us to improve those product placement recommendations.”

The number of data points that play into these decisions can feel overwhelming – and keeping up with them in a notebook or spreadsheet is cumbersome. What dealers need is a way to keep their customers’ field-by-field planting, in-season, and yield information easily accessible so that they can help their growers make the right decisions and stay successful.

The Strategy

Innovations in precision agriculture have made it easier to measure the wide swath of data that can help farmers and dealers assess the most profitable management practices for hybrids and varieties across different farms. However, being able to organize that data and utilize it to make decisions about factors such as seed placement, population and chemical and fertilizer needs is key.

Understanding the most efficient use of on-farm resources can help dealers make the right recommendations to customers for achieving their highest potential return on investment. To make this happen, they need a tool that helps them work with farmers to:

  • Standardize data collection
  • Specify precision management zones
  • Communicate about planting data and yield performance
  • Facilitate in-season scouting and notetaking from the field
  • Easily store and access data via an independent platform

The Solution

Latham Hi-Tech Seeds works with the team at Proagrica to license the Sirrus® program, which is the technology behind the Latham “Data Forward” app.

With Sirrus, dealers can use agronomic data to develop field-by-field cropping plans, make management recommendations and share in-season observations. The tool lets the dealer help customers maximize their operational efficiency by updating fertilizer recs, view field-by-field summaries and import as-planted, as-applied and yield information.

With web-based and mobile app functionality, Sirrus lets multiple users operate in the same account and can be used with or without wireless connectivity, meaning that growers and dealers alike can evaluate and make recommendations for each field while they are in it. No more taking pictures as they drive by or trying to remember which field the notes came from. It can all be communicated in real time.

“Compiling broadacre performance data by soil type for Latham products supports our sales team as they provide recommendations unique to their customers’ acres,” says Long. “We aren’t here to sell something cheap and walk away – we want to be part of building success all season long through tailored recommendations farmers want and need.”

The Result

Since the partnership began five years ago, the use of Proagrica technology by Latham Hi-Tech Seeds has vastly improved their ability to leverage data across the entire organization. The geospatial imagery and standardized data provided – key features of the Proagrica agX® platform that supports Sirrus – has made Latham a more proactive input supplier and a leader in precision agriculture.

Because of the data available, the dealer-customer conversations have changed, shifting from harvest time yield results to the early season factors that determine success and profitability, including seed and input selection. The insights provided let farmers know that their dealers are standing with them. Dealers don’t just analyze post-season but are supporting decisions at every turn. The focus isn’t just on price or yield; it’s on a partnership throughout the season that helps farmers get the most out of every acre.

Latham Hi-Tech Seeds is capitalizing on the next generation of agronomy data tools – helping farmers achieve success today, so their family farms can continue to thrive for generations to come.

We are here to support organizations across the agricultural supply chain on their digitization journey.