Buying corn seed has long been a per-unit purchase, even if buying bulk boxes, but a new program being piloted in Iowa and Illinois by Syngenta Seeds could change all that. Called the GHX experience, the program would seed by the acre, no matter your planting population. While backed by sophisticated technology, GHX aims to simplify seed purchasing.

“We’re giving farmers choices in the market, and we can truly differentiate the seed buying experience,” says Wade Wiley, head of customer experience strategy and business intelligence for Syngenta Seeds. “GHX provides straightforward seeding rate and hybrid recommendations through yield intelligence practices such as imagery, field mapping and yield benchmarking — transforming data into decisions with a MaxScript recommendation.”

It's that software-based recommendation and what it means at planting time that is different from seed sales in the past. For example, perhaps you’ve selected a hybrid under the program, and you usually plant at 33,000 seeds per acre. Under the GHX program, if MaxScript recommends this hybrid to be planted at 40,000 seeds per acre, you can do that, and your per-acre price remains the same.

Package-selling approach

The GHX experience is more than a recommendation for a plant population per acre. Farmers get access to support from new systems under the program. The GHX risk assurance offer includes GHX Mobile and ServiceSquad for support and AgriClime for weather protection.

With the mobile product, a user can select seed, place the order and pay right from their smartphone, but the GHX app also gives users access to agronomic support, farm management insights and other services. That added support comes through the ServiceSquad, which includes customer service both in-person, on-the-phone and through GHX Mobile.

“This is an app-based program, and younger farmers do business differently,” Wiley says. With this approach, he notes, the company can meet the customer on their terms.

Wiley adds that farmers can choose the hybrids that maximize yield with a flat, per-acre price for premium hybrids regardless of population. “MaxScript recommendations allow farmers to select the best products at the right population in the right field,” he says.

Brandon Leander, Syngenta Seeds North America business head of sales for enablement software, explains that MaxScript “allows growers to push plant populations to the max because there is no additional cost for the additional seed. Recommendations are based on data-driven analytics and grower inputs, allowing farmers to select the best products at the right population in the right field.”

The AgriClime program is a risk assurance program for farmers that buy under the GHX experience. Leander says the program is offered without premiums and helps offset the impact of adverse weather conditions during the growing season. “The AgriClime program guarantees cash returns even in adverse weather,” he says.

You can learn more about the program at ghxseed.com.