Upstream Ag Insights - June 4th 2023
Upstream Ag Insights - June 4th 2023
Essential news and analysis for agribusiness leaders
Welcome to the 171st Edition of Upstream Ag Insights!
My name is Shane Thomas and this is Upstream Ag Insights, a weekly newsletter for agribusiness leaders breaking down the newest innovations and business dynamics in the agriculture industry.
Index for the week:
Q1 2023 Agribusiness Results Highlights and Analysis
Formulation Innovation in Crop Protection
Have Farmers Had Enough of Experts?
Sensing From Soil to Storage with Ehsan Soltan of Soiltech Wireless
Digital Enablement: Which Kind of Digital Adopter Are You?
Ag-Specific vs. Off-the-Shelf Software
Trends Driving Automation on the Farm
Picketa Raises $1.4M
GreenLight Biosciences Enters into Definitive Merger Agreement with Consortium Led by Fall Line Endurance Fund for Go-Private Transaction
Bayer Opens First, Only Inputs Store in Brazil
Resetting the Score
Thanks for reading, sharing, and subscribing!
1. Q1 2023 Agribusiness Results Highlights and Analysis - Upstream Ag Insights
Each quarter Upstream Ag Insights highlights some of the largest publicly traded company’s results and earnings, often finding industry trends and notable events that are relevant to agribusiness professionals.
The Q1 2023 quarter was strong overall for most agriculture companies.
Companies covered in order of appearance:
BASF
Bayer Crop Science
Corteva
FMC
Nufarm
Nutrien
Yara
Mosaic
ICL
AGCO
John Deere
CNH Industrial
Lindsay Irrigation
Ag Growth International
American Vanguard
Farmers Edge
2. Bayer: Continuously Launch Innovative and Differentiated Formulation Technologies to Address the Ever-Changing Needs and Challenges - Agro Pages
Formulation Innovation in Crop Protection
One area of agriculture that has been topical for a while now is formulation technology.
When reading about crop protection technology, crop protection company strategy and resource allocation one consistent subject that pops up is formulation. This isn’t entirely new, but the frequency and point of emphasis has increased in the last decade.
Whether reading the above article interviewing Bernhard Grimmig, Global Head of Formulation Technology at Bayer Crop Science, reading the FMC Annual Report where they illustrate how they are leveraging manufacturing and formulation patents to extend the life of critical products to reading about new start-up companies like Harpe Bio and the areas they are working on overcoming to improve the performance of their novel product. From my coverage of Harpe Bio:
The science behind Harpe is promising, with one of the biggest challenges in reading the journal articles being formulation and active ingredient delivery which is an area to cover more in depth in Upstream in the future.
Value accrues to points of differentiation in a value chain.
Traditionally in crop protection products, significant portions of differentiation have come through proprietary active ingredients, like glyphosate (Roundup) or chlorantraniliprole (Rynaxypyr) for example. While this is still the case, there is an increasing opportunity (and need) to differentiate through formulation technology and adjuvants.