As a high school football coach for over 20 years, John Tiarks is naturally competitive.

His ambitious streak flows into his career as a 5th generation Underwood, Iowa farmer and seed dealer - so much so that his seed dealership, Midline & Minden, is named after a football option play.

“Farming and running the football on offense have a lot of things in common: It’s a grind over time,” he laughed.

Tiarks understands how critical it is for growers to achieve higher yields for corn and soybeans. He notes that in Southwest Iowa, growers are establishing new high yields for approximately 85 to 90 percent of farms. Those yields, he explained, are the new bar - and growers need to stay at that level.

“I want to continue to win. I want our customers to win. If they win, I know we’ll win.”

His plan to do that?

 “For me as a seed dealer and a supplier, it involves biologicals. On my own farm - when meeting those new yield goals and pushing things to high levels - it involves biologicals.”

Tiarks began farming with his dad as a college student. After taking over the business and marrying his college sweetheart, he and his wife were looking for ways to make extra income. That led them to dabble in the seed industry. In 2008, they became DEKALB dealers, which rapidly expanded their operation.

Years later, he needed a way to remain competitive within the industry. That led him to Terrasym and other biologicals.

“I think one of the big things at Midline is that we’re always after that 3 to 5 percent growth in yield and outcome,” he said. “How do we go after that? What can we do to separate our business and our operation from the competition? And that’s kind of led us into this biologicals space.”

Midline & Minden now sells biologicals to supplement DEKALB and other products. Terrasym’s 2.5+ Bu/A advantage for soybeans and 4.0+ Bu/A advantage for corn allow growers to see higher yields at harvest.

For Tiarks, the results transferred over to his own farm. 

After using Terrasym on his soybeans, Tiarks saw improvements in vegetative growth and increases in yield and corn.

“When we put the Terrasym 450 [for Corn] on [crops], we saw a 26 acre response, which is pretty high.”

And of course, these higher yields bring customers an ROI advantage: Every 1,000 acres planted with Terrasym nets $20,000 more in incremental income*.

Terrasym is also now available in planter box application, eliminating the need to mix a slurry and putting Terrasym directly in the hands of farmers.

“If you can buy Asgrow soybeans from 4,000 places, why buy from Midline? Well, at Midline, our base seed treatment includes Terrasym.”

To learn more about Terrasym for planter box application and see how much you can increase your return per acre in 2022, visit https://www.newleafsym.com/terrasym-2022/.

*Incremental return per acre based on Terrasym performance of +2.0 Bu/A in soybeans and +4.5 Bu/A in corn.