August 2016 Advantage Newsletter

LEGEND SEEDS

ADVANTAGE LEGEND SEEDS:

A CONSTANT IN AN INDUSTRY OF CHANGE

AUG./ SEPT. 2016

Upcoming Events

By Glen Davis, President, Legend Seeds

Thinking about today’s seed industry, I’m reminded of the saying, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called present.”

I’ve been involved in the seed industry for nearly three decades now, and I have never seen more change. Two giants, Dow and DuPont are poised to merge; Syngenta sold to ChemChina; in the meantime, we wonder about merger discussions between Bayer and Monsanto?

With all this change, I want to reassure our growers that Legend Seeds has not changed. We remain an independent regional seed company, dedicated to our growers and focused on service outside the bag.

Growers who purchase Legend Seeds have access to a knowledgeable team, resources and tools to help them overcome challenges and maximize profits.

As part of our Farmacology® total cropping system, the Legend Edge program helps growers manage field data. Legend Seeds Knowledge Plot® Academies give research-based information to producers; helping growers not only focus on the future but understand how to implement the latest products and technologies in their fields.

SD State Fair September 1-5, 2016 Huron, SD

Big Iron September 13-15, 2016 West Fargo, ND Plot Days: Contact your local Legend Representative or the Legend Seeds office to find a plot day near you!

Legend Sales Agronomist, Josh Lamecker, visiting with world record soybean producer Kip Cullers and Dr. Curt Livesay of Dynamite Ag at our Knowledge Plot located near Lake Preston, SD.

When it comes to the future, Legend Seeds is optimistic. We have confidence in our committed team. We are excited about our future product line-up and eager to hear how 2016 products are performing in your fields this harvest.

Share your success stories and join the Yield Advantage Club.

The Yield Advantage Club gives growers an opportunity to showcase their fields’ successes and Legend Seeds a chance to recognize your successes with prizes. We will give you more details inside this issue.

Before you turn the page, I’d like to personally thank you for trusting Legend Seeds with your seed needs – today and into the future. ADVANTAGE

What’s Inside: PG 4: Step into the Know with Knowledge Plot Review PG 5: Finding Pheasants In The Field

LEGEND SEEDS ADVANTAGE LEGEND SEEDS DEALERS CONNECT

GROWERS TO PRODUCT & KNOWLEDGE

By Jim Germscheid, Legend Business Development Manager

Through our seed dealers, the Legend agronomy team is able to provide growers with agronomic and field management tips to maximize yield potential and profits.

How were you introduced to Legend Seeds? It could have been through a friend or neighbor, but more than likely it was your current Legend Seeds dealer (and in many cases they are also your friend or neighbor).

In my role, I get to work with Legend seed dealers every day.

You see, at Legend Seeds, our seed dealers are an integral part of our team. We provide them with the support they need so that together, we can provide growers with the knowledge, customer service and seed they need to succeed.

As a regional seed company, the Legend Seeds’ team relies on our amazing network of seed dealers to connect us with local growers.

As Legend Seeds expands, we are looking for more seed dealers to fill the areas not currently being served by a Legend dealer. Have you ever thought about selling Legend Seeds, or know someone who would be excellent? If so, please give me a call, 612-247-0039. If there’s an opening, we should talk.

Family-owned, like most of the seed dealers we work with, we succeed only if our growers do. So, Legend Seeds works closely with our seed dealers to keep them on top of new genetics or traits that will better meet their customer’s yield and profit goals.

Legend Seeds is a great team to work with. I’d like you to meet a few of our dealers from across the region and learn why they made the decision to join our team.

Because Legend Seeds is an independent regional seed company, we have access to ALL trait and genetic programs, allowing us to customize our product line-up to local needs and growing conditions.

Proven Products: Craig Loen

“It’s a good situation for me to also be a farmer, because I can honestly say that I have seen it, felt it, touched it and harvested it. That kind of first-hand knowledge is important to our growers,” Craig says.

Federated Co-ops - Osceola, WI

Working in agronomy sales for Federated Co-ops, each growing season Craig Loen helps about 200 growers make their seed purchasing decisions.

The member-owned cooperative has five agronomy locations serving more than 1,000 growers in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

He says that the Legend Seeds team makes his job easy.

“Legend Seeds has a great agronomy team who really know their products. They have a great product selection that works in our growers’ fields – the right seed for our ground and growing conditions. And, if I have any questions, I just give them a call and they help me understand which products work best with specific soil types.”

Due to current commodity markets, Craig says that recently, Legend Seeds’ conventional corn and soybean products have been popular among growers.

“It’s an outstanding lineup with maturities that fit our area really well,” he says. “They are good quality and proven. In fact, I had conventionals in test plots last year that were running neck-and-neck with traited corn.”

Also a small dairy farmer, Craig has been impressed with the tonnage he has received from Legend Seeds corn that he cuts for silage each year.

Legend Seeds Dealer, Craig Loen of Federated Co-ops

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LEGEND SEEDS ADVANTAGE We’re part of the Family: Rob Hess & Gordon Schlenker

raise their eyebrows at this because other seed companies don’t have the luxury to grow in the area first. They just want to sell seed.”

Cottontail Creek Seed - Jamestown, ND

Their growers are happy with the results and Cottontail Creek Seed has expanded.

When Gordon Schlenker’s daughter, Julie married Rob Hess, Gordon got more than a son-in-law, he got a farming partner. Today Rob and Gordon farm close to 3,000 acres near Jamestown, ND, and co-own Cottontail Creek Seed.

“Being a seed dealer helps supplement our farm income. And, it’s a nice excuse to get out and talk to our neighbors,” Rob says.

Farming and owning a seed dealership together for 34 years now, the two men became Legend Seed dealers 13 years ago.

When their busy season rolls around, they have a system worked out where Gordon does all the planting while Rob keeps the seeder going and serves growers as they load up their seed.

“We heard that Legend Seeds was up and coming and had the newest varieties of soybeans.

Soybeans were new to our area, so we decided to carry Legend,” Rob says.

Legend Seeds Dealer - Rob Hess of Cottontail Creek Seed

If there’s ever a time they have questions, the men say that their Legend Seeds team serves them well.

“I respect the fact that they are almost family. They treat us seed dealers like a relative. That goes quite a long way in my book,” Rob says. “If there is ever a problem, in a day or so I can have the company president, Glen Davis sitting at my kitchen table or my customer’s kitchen table. That’s what I mean when I say they treat us like family.”

Providing seed to local growers, the men say today they sell and raise 100% Legend Seeds because they believe in the company and the product it provides them.

Rob adds that he also appreciates the education he receives from Legend Seeds.

“One thing about the seed business, you’re always learning about the new varieties and management practices which helps us improve our own operation. And, when I or one of my customers has a question I can’t answer, I just call my Legend Sales Agronomist.”

“We’ve had excellent results with Legend Seeds. We tell all our growers that we won’t recommend a hybrid or variety until we grow it first on our farm. We want to let them know how it performed in a whole field versus a test plot,” says Gordon, who, with Rob, raises wheat, soybeans and corn. “They often

Insider’s perspective: Butch Brenden

Butch traded in his role as a Legend Seeds employee for that of a seed dealer, he says the education continues.

Countyline Ag - Vienna, SD

A fourth-generation farmer, Butch Brenden has always worked to supplement his family farm’s income.

“The biggest challenge to making it farming today is the fact that it’s cost-prohibitive to expand acres,” says the Legend Seeds Dealer. “The obvious reason I’m a seed dealer is to supplement our farm’s income.”

“As a seed dealer, they train you and provide you with the knowledge base you need on the products that you are selling.”

Before he was a Legend Seeds dealer, Butch worked for Legend Seeds as the Assistant Product Manager. As an employee, Butch really got to know the people of Legend Seeds. “I can honestly say that the biggest reason I sell seed for Legend is the people. That, and the fact that Legend Seeds is one of the few independent, family-owned seed companies you can buy seed from these days.”

Butch Brenden with his wife Erin and three children.

When it comes to product, Butch says he never even considered selling for a different seed company.

“Legend Seeds has the ability to get the product your growers need. To me, there is really no reason to sell seed for someone else because there are no products on the market that you can’t get as a dealer for Legend Seeds.”

As a farmer, Butch always appreciated the education on the latest traits, genetics and management practices he received as a Legend Seeds employee.

When he and his wife, Erin, took over her family’s farm and

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LEGEND SEEDS ADVANTAGE STEP INTO THE KNOW WITH

2016 KNOWLEDGE PLOT ACADEMY REVIEW

By Matt Raml, Director of Product Development & Josh Lamecker, Research & Lead Sales Agronomist

Providing growers with insight into future products and information to help them increase yields today is the focus of Legend Seeds’ Knowledge Plot® Academies.

4. Sunflowers & Alfalfa were part of the conversation.

Legend Seeds’ relationship with NuSeed continues to be a strong one, connecting our growers with elite hybrids.

Looking back on 2016 Knowledge Plot Academies we put together a short list highlighting our top tips and topics covered.

Legend deployed a new line of alfalfa products including: HarvXtra™, a Roundup® Ready, reduced lignin line which is proven to improve overall animal health; Leyenda, an amazing conventional hybrid which is resistant to diseases and produces high quality forage and ToughMax II, a salt-tolerant variety which is overall an exceptional performer.

1. Tried & True – Local Field Management Practices were a focus of the 2016 Knowledge Plot Academies. We discussed the local best field practices – everything from planting depth and population, down pressure and planter settings to precision planting, in furrow fertilizer and insecticide applications.

5. Soybean Seed Treatments made available to Legend Seeds growers in 2017 will include YP Pro, a customized line of seed treatment which has been designed specifically for Legend Seeds and encourages early-season plant vigor, emergence and season-long disease resistance as well as exceptional root development.

2. We continue to identify elite genetics, traits and technologies. With so many new seed technologies, soybean and corn platforms on the horizon, a clear understanding of what is available is key to making the right seed and trait package decisions for your farming practices and field challenges.

In-field studies demonstrated a vast improvement in plant health over untreated soybeans and equal performance with other brands.

6. Your Year-Round Team is always available to help with seed and agronomic advice. Knowledge Plots are just one of many ways the Legend Seeds Team works to provide information and exceptional customer service. Whether you were able to attend or not, know that you can always contact your local Legend Seeds representative with questions.

The germ plasm world changes quickly. Legend Seeds remains dedicated to researching products and aggressive in deploying the best quickly if we see a fit and need.

3. Precision Planting Experts talked with growers about options available and answered questions. Although we don’t sell precision planting products, Legend Seeds maintains strong working relationships with experts throughout all avenues of the industry so we can help our growers achieve maximum yield.

ADVANTAGE

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LEGEND SEEDS ADVANTAGE LEGEND SEEDS BRINGS NEW MEANING TO

FINDING PHEASANTS IN THE FIELD for their seed investment, from choosing the right seed for their fields to providing support throughout the growing season.

In a state known for pheasants, it’s not unexpected to find South Dakota’s state bird nestled among the crops. But while pheasant hunters are accustomed to having to flush the fowl from its hiding spot, travelers flying over the rural town of Willow Lake, S.D. won’t have to look very hard to spot a pair of ringnecks taking flight from the corn in plain view.

The Legend Edge, a cloud-based Farmacology software tool, provides Legend Seeds’ dealers the data and information to work side-by-side with customers and make agronomic decisions that will help them earn more money per acre.

Legend Seeds IT System Manager Jason Davis used the program to create the cutting-edge prescriptive multi-hybrid seeding plan which resulted in the images. According to Davis, two hybrids were planted: one with dark green leaves and red tassels and another with light green leaves and yellow tassels to visually demonstrate the accuracy of multi-hybrid planting.

The corn was planted in 30-inch rows with a 24-row John Deere planter equipped with Precision Planting multi-hybrid meters.

Area farmer Trav Bratland worked with Legend Seeds on a multi-hybrid seeding prescription to create a larger-thanlife crop art installation in his field southeast of Willow Lake.

Visible from more than 4,000 feet in the air, the two pheasants flanking the Legend Seeds logo are more than just a spectacle; they showcase the practical applications of a technology that enables farmers to maximize yield and increase profit margins.

“Multi-hybrid planting allows growers to plan offensive, or racehorse, hybrids for high productivity soil and defensive, or workhorse, hybrids for low productivity soil, enabling the most effective corn hybrid to be placed on each acre. As the precision and clarity of the images in Trav’s field demonstrates, our system is accurate almost down to the square foot,” said Josh Lamecker, Legend Sales Agronomist.

Attendees at upcoming regional farm shows will have the opportunity to get a closer look at this technology. A multi-hybrid planter and coverage of Farmacology tools and the crop art images will be on display at each of the shows.

More information on Legend Seeds’ precision ag and research offerings is also available at any of our Knowledge Plots®. ADVANTAGE

Legend Seeds is the only company in the industry to offer Farmacology®, a collection of research, resources, and tools aimed at helping dealers and growers achieve the most value

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TURN YIELDS INTO CASH

FOR LOCAL CHARITY: WITH YIELD ADVANTAGE CLUB

Exceptional yields are rewarded when you share!

This harvest, if your yield monitor shows several bushels over the county average, don’t keep the good news a secret.

Contact your local Legend Seeds representative and join the Legend Yield Advantage Club.

The Yield Advantage Club identifies superior products and management practices. Members are eligible for monetary prizes that they and their communities can enjoy on us!

Everyone who joins the Yield Advantage Club receives a plaque and gift from Legend Seeds.

Join & Enter for a Chance to Give $500 to a Charity of Your Choice All Yield Advantage Club members’ names will be entered into a drawing. Four members will receive $500 to give to the charity of their choice.

“Legend Seeds is local. We live in the communities we service and we work to give back not only to our growers with knowledge that improves yields and profits, but to the place you call home,” Glen Davis, President, Legend Seeds.

PROGRAM DETAILS & REGISTRATION: Contact your local Legend representative or visit us online for more details about the Yield Advantage Club. Entry forms due December 1st, 2016.

800.678.3346 • legendseeds.net

PO Box 241 De Smet, SD 57231