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We are proud to announce that our farming film, Last Stand, and three related short videos took home Telly Awards this year. The Telly Awards honor excellence in video and television across all screens.

Last Stand, a movie about the joys and challenges of being a farmer that was filmed during the 2020 growing season, was recognized with both a Silver and a Bronze Telly. It is available to watch as both a short, 20-minute version and an in-depth, hour-long film.

The other Telly Winners were the short videos Religious Experience, You'd Never Go Without It, and The Whole World Can Benefit, which can be viewed below. All of the winning videos were produced by the team at Light Work Productions.

Religious Experience

Silver Winner: Non-broadcast - Lifestyle Category

You'd Never Go Without It

Silver Winner: Non-broadcast - Sales Category

The Whole World Can Benefit

Bronze Winner: Non-broadcast - Sustainability Category

Accomplish MAX, a next-generation biocatalyst that provides nutrient efficiency and crop stress tolerance benefits, is now available from Loveland Products through Nutrien Ag Solutions retail locations. It is designed for use with in-furrow starters, 2x2 placement of liquid fertilizers, and liquid sidedress applications.

Accomplish MAX is a proprietary combination of proven Accomplish biocatalyst technology, which growers have used for over a decade to improve nutrient mineralization and uptake on millions of acres across the United States, and cutting-edge kelp technology designed to enhance crop tolerance to abiotic stressors such as cold temperatures, drought and fertilizer salts. 

Key benefits of Accomplish MAX:

• Increases nutrient availability and uptake by mineralizing nutrients in the soil
• Improves plant tolerance to abiotic stresses such as cold temperatures and salinity from commercial fertilizers
• Enhances overall plant performance to help growers reach their yield potential

Common stressors like cold temperatures, drought and fertilizer salts can slow early-season plant growth, robbing growers of yield. By incorporating Accomplish MAX into their existing fertility programs, growers can help their crops better endure some of these environmental stresses, ultimately leading to better results at harvest time.

“For years we’ve been driving crop yields with Accomplish LM. In Accomplish MAX, we’ve combined that proven biocatalyst technology with powerful kelp technology to both enhance nutrient use efficiency and improve abiotic stress tolerance, providing a significant agronomic advantage,” says Taylor Ivy, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Plant Nutrition, Loveland Products.

Accomplish MAX was extensively validated in corn, cotton, and soybean crops during the 2021 growing season, both at the Loveland Products Research farms in Kentucky and in 60 replicated on-farm trials and 20 replicated trials at third-party cooperators and university sites.

Accomplish MAX is manufactured by Agricen.

Learn more about Accomplish MAX by downloading the Accomplish MAX booklet.

Farmers have a story to tell, and we wanted to capture it. During the 2020 growing season, Agricen hired a film crew to document the experiences of growers from four different farm operations in the United States. The result is Last Stand, a movie that follows some of America's top farmers as they try to grow the highest yields possible in a season full of challenges. The film can be watched by visiting LastStand.ag.

“While you can never predict what the growing season will be like, the 2020 season certainly did manage to throw many surprises into the mix. Excessive rain and hurricanes, the historic derecho in Iowa and across the upper Midwest – and that’s just the weather,” says Michael Totora, president and CEO of Agricen. “We think this is an important film that not only gives viewers a unique glimpse into the lives of the featured farmers, but also into the lives of farmers across the U.S. in 2020.”

The farmers featured in the film have a passion for farming and produced some of the highest corn yields in the nation in recent years. They also have the humor, grit and resilience to help them succeed at the job.

In Last Stand, you’ll meet:

• Don Stall – A former Marine, Don still reflects on the lessons he learned in the Marine Corps to help him face the challenges of being a farmer. Don farms in Michigan.

• Kelly Garrett – Kelly farms with his father and three sons in Iowa, where they work cattle and grow corn, soybeans and winter wheat.

• Heath Cutrell – Heath is a third-generation corn, soybean and wheat grower farming in Virginia and across the state line in North Carolina.

• Kevin and Shawn Kalb – Kevin and Shawn farm with their children in Southern Indiana, where they produce corn, soybeans and turkeys, and can often be found smashing state and national corn yield records.

• Dr. Fred Below & Connor Sible – Dr. Below and PhD student Connor Sible are from the Crop Physiology Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where they research factors influencing corn and soybean productivity.

Pictured above are top producers Don Stall (top L), Kelly Garrett (top R), Heath Cutrell (bottom L) and Kevin and Shawn Kalb (bottom R).

Another factor that ties the growers together is that they have used Agricen's product technologies in their high-yielding programs.

“Several years ago, we noticed that a number of growers with top corn yields at the state and national levels used our product technologies in their production programs,” says Totora. “With Last Stand, we set out to dig into that, but it quickly became much more. Their stories, as captured in the film, are deeply personal, yet also familiar to farmers everywhere.”

Last Stand, filmed by agriculture documentary veterans Light Work Productions, is the second long-form film about farming developed by Agricen. Agricen’s previous film about agriculture, Prove It to Me, which followed five farmers from Arkansas and Iowa during the 2015 growing season, is also available to view.

Explore the Last Stand trailers or visit laststand.ag to watch the full film. 

Jeff van Kalker, a tested operations and supply chain innovator, has joined Agricen as Director of Operations. In his new role, Jeff is responsible for overseeing safety, quality, capacity planning and logistics at the facilities where Agricen's biological and biochemical products are manufactured. 

Prior to joining Agricen, Jeff was director of operations at Ecolab, a global leader in water, hygiene and energy technologies and services, where he developed multiple new products and product lines that significantly increased revenue and profitability.

“Jeff has a track record of developing and managing best practices in manufacturing, supply chain, distribution and plant operations. He will be a tremendous asset to Agricen as we continue to expand our manufacturing capacity and develop new products and technology,” said John Wolf, Agricen’s Senior Director of Innovation.

Jeff earned his Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Florida and an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is a certified Lean Six Sigma deployment leader.

We're happy to welcome Jeff to the team!

Explore some of Agricen's commercialized technologies by downloading the Biocatalyst Technology FAQ booklet.

We are happy to welcome Smrithi Rajagopal as Agricen's Solutions Innovation Manager. 

Smrithi will focus on determining the feasibility of commercializing new and emerging technologies, working with different stakeholders to identify customer needs and validate business and technical requirements for targeted plant health solutions. She will also manage and lead multidisciplinary project teams to advance the development and market introduction of new plant health products and technologies. 

“Smrithi brings the right balance of product marketing, project management and scientific skills to advance our processes for bringing plant health solutions to market,” said John Wolf, Agricen’s Senior Director of Innovation. “She will also play an instrumental role in developing and implementing new education programs for our client customers to help them fully understand the role and functioning of our sustainable biocatalyst technologies.”

Prior to her new appointment, Smrithi was a process engineer and research associate with Agricen Sciences, Agricen’s sister company. Previously, she was a graduate research assistant at the University of Cincinnati. She holds a Master of Science degree in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from the University of Texas, a Master of Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Cincinnati and a Bachelor of Technology degree in Chemical Engineering from Anna University in Chennai, India.

Please join us in welcoming Smrithi!

Explore some of Agricen's commercialized technologies by downloading the Biocatalyst Technology FAQ booklet.

With plant health innovation at the core of our business, we are pleased to announce that John Wolf has been appointed as Senior Director of Innovation. In this role, John will define, identify, and lead new innovation initiatives and strategies, with a focus on developing new technologies to improve plant health in agriculture and related industries.

John rejoins Agricen after serving for four years as general manager of CH Biotech R&D Co., a developer of plant health and nutrition technologies that is also a strategic partner of Loveland Products.

“John’s recent experience running a research and development-focused company is a tremendous asset as we develop and commercialize new plant health technologies and grow into new markets and geographies,” said Michael Totora, Agricen's President and CEO.

Previously, John directed commercial development at Agricen. He has also held several management positions at Loveland Products, with responsibilities spanning sales, technical support and marketing within the company's plant nutrition business and sales and marketing of specialty agricultural chemicals in Asia. Earlier in his career, John served as general manager at Applied Spray Technologies and as product manager for the adjuvants and micronutrients business of United Agri Products.

Please join us in welcoming John!

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Learn about Agricen's innovative technologies by accessing our Biocatalyst Technology FAQ booklet.

This year, Agricen celebrates 20 years of agricultural technology research, discovery and innovation aimed at sustainably improving crop yields. Two decades is no small feat in the agribusiness industry, and it's an even bigger achievement in our sector, focused on agricultural biostimulants and biologicals.

This sector has made huge strides since we were founded in 1998 in Pilot Point, Texas. When we began, there was a general skepticism about biological solutions for agriculture. This was driven in part by a lack of knowledge about how the science had begun to advance—moving beyond "bathtub brews" to advanced, quality controlled products with claims that could be supported by field and university data.

We're happy to announce the hiring of Scott Lay as director of business development at Agricen. In his new role, Scott will focus on developing plant health technology partnerships and collaborations in emerging market segments and regions. 

Scott is a seasoned ag industry veteran. He joins Agricen from Loveland Products, where he most recently served as Midwest area sales manager for four years. Prior to that role, Scott was proprietary products manager for five divisions of Crop Production Services (CPS) in Illinois, where he was instrumental in the successful introduction and promotion of leading Loveland brands, including Accomplish LM, Titan XC, and Extract PBA. He has also served in various roles with Bayer CropScience, working with professional farm management, consultants and state commodity managers.

"Agricen’s longstanding relationship with Loveland Products has given me the opportunity to understand the company's unique plant health technology platform and its benefits for growers," said Scott. “I'm excited to be a part of the team and to help connect new markets with Agricen's proven plant health technologies.” 

Please join us in welcoming Scott as the newest member of our team!

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Learn more about Agricen's plant health technologies by accessing our Biocatalyst Technology FAQ booklet.

Agricen and Taranis, a precision agriculture company, have received a grant from the Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation to collaborate on a project to advance and commercialize a new precision agriculture system for abiotic stress detection and prevention in row crops. 

Abiotic stresses are environmental or physical impacts on a plant (e.g., drought, salinity, extreme temperatures, nutrient deficiency), and result in billions of dollars of lost crop value each year. The Agricen/Taranis collaboration will address this agricultural challenge by creating a solution that merges the Taranis platform—which incorporates field imaging technology and a deep learning algorithm—with Agricen’s proven biostimulant technologies.

Once developed, the system will be able to be utilized in any geography to help detect and prevent abiotic stress in row crops, saving growers significant time and resources while increasing plant health and yield opportunities.

A simulation of the abiotic stress detection platform that will be developed is shown in the image above, with red boxes outlining the signs of drought stress in corn. Based on the stress identified, appropriate recommendations can be made—including the use of agricultural biostimulants—to both ameliorate the conditions causing stress and prevent further crop damage.  

Learn more about Agricen's biostimulant technologies by downloading our Biocatalyst Technology FAQ. 

We are happy to announce today that Agricen now has operations on two continents: North America, with headquarters and a manufacturing plant in Texas, and Australia, with a new manufacturing facility in Dandenong, Victoria.

Agricen Australia is producing sustainable fertilizer biocatalyst products under the names of Basis® and Foundation™ LM for distribution in the Australian market through Loveland Agri Products and Landmark. The products are manufactured using natural, locally sourced base ingredients in our recently constructed Australian plant.

“This is an important milestone for Agricen’s growth into new international markets as well as for Australian agriculture, which now has access to a new generation of sustainable plant health technologies,” says Michael Totora, President and CEO of Agricen. “With the new operation in Australia, our products are now being distributed across three continents: North America, South America and Australia. We are excited by the momentum and interest in Agricen’s technologies—and their positive contribution to growers’ cropping programs and sustainability efforts.”

Basis and Foundation LM are agricultural biostimulants derived from diverse, naturally occurring microbial communities and designed to work with a grower’s existing crop fertility program to increase nutrient availability and improve overall plant performance.

Basis is specifically formulated for use with granular fertilizers, while Foundation LM is formulated for use with spray applications, including liquid fertilizers, ground-applied herbicides and broadacre sprays.

Since the initiation of production in Australia over the past year, Basis and Foundation LM have been tested across Australia and used to improve the health and productivity of crops that include canola, wheat, pulses and fresh produce/horticultural crops such as strawberries, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage (wombok) and sugar cane.

Visit Agricen Australia to learn more about what we are doing down under.