DuPont, the parent company of Pioneer, has announced the purchase of Lake Providence, La.,-based Terral Seed.

“We reached agreement to sell the company and are excited to be part of the Pioneer sales group,” said Dean Williams, Terral Seed General Manager, in late December. “We’ll be an independent company owned by Pioneer.”

The transition should be easier than most because Pioneer and Terral Seed have already been working together for many months. In late summer of 2009, a joint soybean and corn research and marketing agreement was announced between the two.

“This is the start of a revolution in genetics and traits,” said Pioneer’s Scott Jungman during an August 2009 Terral field day in Greenville, Miss., where Terral’s REV product line-up was rolled out. “Pioneer is the world’s largest seed company, germ plasm and traits. Terral Seed is the Mid-South’s leading tester/researcher of hybrids and varieties for the nine unique environments you guys farm.”

For more, see Agribusiness: Terral/Pioneer agreement 

Now under DuPont (Pioneer), Williams said Terral Seed “will continue and you won’t see a lot of differences – the REV and Terral brands will stay with us. We’ll just be a company owned by Pioneer.”

Does the sale mean you’ll have more access to Pioneer’s genetic bank? Will it stay the same?

“It’ll be the same access we’ve had in the past.” When setting up the original 2009 agreement with Pioneer, “we did research on the genetics, germplasm and traits (available in Pioneer’s) genetic pool.

“We’ve always believed that Pioneer has the deepest, richest and best genetic pool in the world. And we’ve had access to it.

“I think Terral’s performance and where we’ve gone with the company over a short time while working with Pioneer furthered their interest. They liked what they saw. And they made an offer to buy the company, which the Terral family accepted.”

Williams pointed to the “synergies” involved in the acquisition, including “the knowledge of Pioneer, combining the use of their facilities with ours, doing things that make sense logistically, in packaging. Terral had some genetics on the soybean side that were unique to us. So, there’s a lot of synergy.”

Terral’s emphasis on retail distribution “is something that’s a bit unique” to the company, said Williams. “Our primary focus of building business is through the retail distribution channel. That’s our go-to-market strategy.

“We’ll remain a very lean and efficient working group. We’ll maintain low overhead and bring the best genetics.”

And Terral will continue to push Southern performance. “As much as anything, (Pioneer) knew our total focus is on the South – and we’re growing our business in the region laterally, more east-and-west.

“Our focus forever has been on the needs of the Southern grower. We try to hit all the micro-climates in the South and have hybrids and varieties that fit those micro-climates. (These are concerns) from Texas to the Carolinas – north to the Missouri bootheel and across to southern Kentucky all the way south to the Gulf of Mexico.

“It’s full speed ahead with our REV line-up of corn and soybeans. We offer a great alternative to other platforms from genetic and trait sides. We offer what the grower needs: the right genetics with the right trait package. We bring them products that have the right return for the right cost. And yield is the number one trait we look for.”