Planting seeds for success

COLFAX – Inside the expansive warehouse of Beck’s Superior Hybrids, located less than a mile off Interstate 80 near the Colfax/Mingo exit, Sen. Zach Nunn, R-Bondurant, watched as workers piloted speedy forklifts and stacked wooden pallets loaded with bags of crop seeds into neat piles.

By mid-February, the warehouse has a fair bit of leg room, and yet Beck’s has still amassed a hefty stockpile. As sales support manager Scott Coon provided Nunn with a tour of the facility Friday afternoon, the two would often stop to chat and were quite literally overshadowed by tall, skyscraper-like containers.

Each one, of course, is likely filled with seeds for farming purposes. Beck’s regularly carries corn and soybean variants, but also has reserves for wheat and other small grains, Coon said. Nunn wanted to see first-hand the kinds of technological advancements Beck’s is adapting to in the ag industry.

Technology in agriculture continues to progress, and Beck's knows this all too well. In addition to adhering to customer needs — like any other business — Nunn said Beck's has to be proficient at responding to what's happening in ag on the global front. That itself can even be a challenge for a seed business.

“You gotta plan out 18 months in advance what your product is going to look like and how you’re going to get it to the field,” Nunn said, pointing out Beck’s proactive approach. “They bring in a lot of analytics that, I think, smartly have put them in a better position to be able to meet the demand (of customers).”

Beck’s is a family-owned business which opened shop in Jasper County a little more than three years ago. The retail seed company serves farmers in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

Even though Beck’s mainly focuses on seed retail, Nunn is impressed the company is also helping drive the conversations of technology in ag for those who buy their seeds. By hosting different platforms and workshops to bolster better fertilizer methods, for instance, Beck’s is helping to educate farmers.

“From Beck’s perspective, the guys who embrace technology earlier in the process end up with a much better yield and a much better cost saving and, as a result, a farmer that’s going to last a lot longer,” Nunn said. “And that’s good for everybody.”

When compared to legislation, technology will always innovate faster. While the people are adapting to the developing tech landscape, the policies to support it are often lagging behind, Nunn said. From a legislator’s perspective, Nunn is grateful to talk with vendors and absorb their valuable experience.

Right now, Nunn said, legislators have an opportunity in Iowa to “set a new standard” when it comes to water quality through the governor’s Invest in Iowa Act. If it moves forward, three-eighths of a cent in sales tax be used toward water quality and mental health.

“One of the worst things we can do is say, ‘Alright, let’s lock ourselves into the technological standards today all the way through 2050.’ That’s 30 years of a very static legislative bill. What I’m hearing here (at Beck’s) is we have a look at stuff every 10 years, every five years, every growing season,” Nunn said.

That kind of flexibility within the formula is important for businesses to adhere to legislative standards while still being able to innovate. A bill that would be too restrictive from a technological standpoint may not bode well. Long-term restrictions and the need to innovate do not seem to mix.

Coon said the seed industry in general has taken as much of a lead on ag technology as any other business. One that is expressly offered to Beck’s customers for free is the FARMserver app, which is useful for precision farming and management. At Beck’s in Colfax a fair bit of the tech is used by workers.

“Here, specifically, we’re driven by technology,” Coon said, noting the hand scanners located at the entrance. “Everything we do here is technically automated.”

Having a place like Beck’s in Jasper County is valuable to the community, Nunn said.

“As ag in Iowa continues to change, having a local provider like Beck’s in the community is going to be our first bellwether of where that change is going,” Nunn said. “You can have out-of-state sellers all over the place, but that is not going to trickle back into how that is affecting our local economy.”