The Only Constant is Change

“The check is in the mail.” “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”  And, “After the merger/buyout, nothing will really change.”

Those are popular candidates for the three biggest lies commonly told. There are others, but let’s set those aside.

Now that Bayer has been granted approval by the US Department of Justice, the final leg of the “Buyout Trifecta” can be completed.

As you recall, first was the buyout of Syngenta by our good and trustworthy Chinese friends—Chem China.

That was followed by the marriage of Dow and DuPont, forming Corteva.

And in a couple of months, Monsanto, as a company and as a name, will no longer exist.

But of course, nothing will really change!

As you may know, before Bayer can complete its buyout of Monsanto, it will need to divest lots of other assets, chief among them all the LibertyLink^® seed and trait assets and much of the heart of their seed treatment business—along with vegetable seeds and many other assets. Those will become part of BASF, another massive German conglomerate. Expect those divestitures to be completed within the next 2 months and then Monsanto will cease to exist.

Please understand, I am not against change. In fact, we love the many great technologies that these behemoths have brought to farmers across this country and across this region. We’ve built our company by fitting those technologies with genetics that are suited to your fields. Progress and change are part of our company DNA.

But we know from hard-won experience that the further away from the farm key decisions are made, the less likely they are to be made with the interests of farmers at heart.

And we can expect a lot of changes in those big companies as they move forward—some of it is already happening. Brands disappearing or consolidating, people being shifted around or shifted out, radical changes in strategy. It will be a pretty interesting couple of years for those folks!

So, what can you expect from Peterson Farms Seed? The good news is that for Peterson Farms Seed customers, when we promise nothing will change – we mean it!

1) We will continue to offer the same great “Monsanto” traited products, but now from Bayer. Roundup Ready 2 Yield® & Roundup Ready 2 Xtend® soybeans, VT2Pro RIB, SmartStax® and RR2 corn—paired with genetics from multiple sources to fit your fields.

2) We will continue to be this region’s LibertyLink^® Leader, but now anchored under a BASF logo rather than a Bayer logo. In fact, the entire Bayer team that we worked with will now be working for BASF—and in the same building.

3) Peterson Farms Seed will continue to lead the way with new traits and technologies including LibertyLink® GT27™ soybeans and Enlist™ Soybeans—we have many exciting new products with these traits.

Our company is headquartered on the farm that my grandparents bought in 1918. This is my family’s 100th crop on that land. We’re not going anywhere!

And we will continue to stand by the mantra that started our business: “We will sell no seed that we wouldn’t be happy to plant on our own farm.”