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Get ready for new names in agGet ready for new names in ag

Hi-Tech Farming: Corteva Agriscience is already making news, even though it isn’t an independent company yet.

Tom J Bechman 1, Editor, Indiana Prairie Farmer

April 6, 2018

3 Min Read
NEW NAMES: Planet, a company you’ve likely never heard of, controls 190 satellites and will direct some of those toward collecting crop information with Granular, another name you likely don’t know.3DSculptor/iStock/Thinkstock

News releases cross the wire every day. It’s rare that whoever issues the release is as big a story as the information in the release. But that was the case when Corteva Agriscience issued a release recently.

Haven’t heard of Corteva Agriscience yet? Don’t feel alone. The company is so new, it isn’t expected to become fully independent until June 2019.

However, you know Dow AgroSciences — or to be more correct, DowDuPont, a merger of DuPont Crop Protection and Dow AgroSciences. All these name changes result from the merger of two giants: DuPont and Dow. Once the dust settles, the plan calls for the ag division to be split off as Corteva Agrisciences. In addition to DuPont Crop Protection and Dow AgroSciences, the division will include DuPont Pioneer.

Look through old farm magazines starting in the 1940s up through today. You’ll see many names that no longer exist mentioned in ads, along with some that do. J.I. Case and International Harvester are examples. The Case and IH names survive as Case IH. Their global parent entity, CNH, also includes New Holland. The Ford name fades away as you move forward in years, but New Holland’s colors give way to Ford blue.

The only thing you can be sure of regarding ads, say, five years from now, in 2023, is that there’ll be names you don’t recognize. Some popular names today may be gone. Don’t rule out color and logo changes.

More new names
Here are more names that are likely new to you. The Corteva Agrisciences news release announced that Granular had expanded its global partnership with Planet. Who is Granular? It’s the software business arm of Corteva, the agriculture division of DowDuPont.

Who is Planet? “Planet operates the world’s largest fleet of satellites, and is quickly advancing its image frequency and quality,” says Sid Gorham, Granular chief executive officer and co-founder. “Our team of data scientists has built tools that translate Planet’s imagery into actionable insights on the health of crops throughout the growing season.

“Our farmer-customers access these insights via Granular’s easy-to-use mobile applications — enabling farmers to tap into the power of a global satellite network right from their phone.”

Planet was founded in 2010 by three NASA scientists. It designs, builds and operates more than 190 satellites. Learn more at planet.com.

Name you know
You haven’t heard of Granular or Planet. How about Encirca Services, a division of Pioneer? Now maybe the circle will begin to connect

Granular will directly license and integrate Planet’s daily feed of satellite imagery into its farm management software. It will begin delivering that information through Encirca Services, a name many of you already know. Once the dust settles by midsummer 2019, if all goes as planned, Encirca Services will officially be part of Corteva Agrisciences. Officials expect that Corteva Agrisciences will offer growers around the world the most complete portfolio of agricultural brands and services in the industry.

If you want to get a head start on learning more about this new name in agriculture, visit corteva.com.

Why should you care who Granular and Planet are? Because it looks like a major player just upped the ante in the battle to see what will supply crop health information long term — satellites or drones.

About the Author

Tom J Bechman 1

Editor, Indiana Prairie Farmer

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