Meristem Crop Performance Group LLC, Columbus, Ohio, and Planet Earth Agronomy LLC, Middleton, Wisc., last month announced a strategic product development alliance designed to bring biological products to American farmers.
“This is the next step in our journey to create the first direct-to-farm business channel connecting the latest R&D to 20 million acres and beyond,” said Mitch Eviston, Meristem Founder and CEO. “Larry Fiene and his team at Planet Earth Agronomy have tested and refined new biologicals and biostimulants from all over the world, and together we will bring them to market at a price point that helps farmers make the most of every dollar they spend on these new inputs.”
“Farmers need real-life solutions that work under the stress of efficient, intensive crop production,” said Fiene. “We’re finding new methods of making biologicals and synthetics work together, be effective in the spray tank or on dry fertilizer, and provide a better ROI (return on investment) for growers.”
Fiene, who has over 30 years of experience, owns Planet Earth Agronomy, an agronomic consulting and new product development business.
Meristem is a relatively new direct-to-farm business, launching in May 2020 with Mitch Eviston and Rob McClelland as principals of the company. Eviston is a former Senior Vice President of WinField, with 30 years of experience in the crop input distribution business. “We’ve set up Meristem to be the lean provider of high-quality crop input additives to help these global players cut costs and increase yields,” he said at the time.
McClelland is the past President of Farm Journal Performance Marketing and co-founder and past CEO of FLM Harvest, a consulting, marketing, and communications agency.
The Meristem Board of Advisors is led by Rod Schroeder, former Chief Operating Officer of Land O’Lakes/WinField.
Meristem said it sources, formulates, and delivers crop inputs to farmers at the least cost possible, at savings up to 30 percent. With Planet Earth Agronomy, it hopes to build a biological lineup, including products to aid in the breakdown on crop residue and enhance nutrient release, industry-leading microbial packages for corn and soybeans, and a best-in-class stress mitigation product.
Meristem’s initial product portfolio includes crop input additives widely used by corn, soybean, wheat, sugar beet, cotton, and potato growers. The list includes seed treatments under the brand Raceready™, Revline™ plant growth regulators, Trutrack™ drift control, Aquadraft™ water conditioners and surfactants, and Homestretch™ nitrogen stabilizers, micronutrients, and foliar nutritionals.
Over the past year, Meristem has been branching out to add products and distribution partners, including C&H Ag Products, Benton County, Ind.; Ag To Go LLC, Henrietta, N.Y.; Forefront Ag Solutions, Huntington, Ind.; Axis Seed Direct LLC, Genoa, Ill.; AgPlanIt, Axtell, Neb.; and Van Trump Ag Solutions, Kansas City.
Meristem told Green Markets that company principals are Eviston and McClelland. While Old World Specialty Products LLC, a unit of Old World Industries LLC, Northbrook, Ill., was an initial joint venture partner, Meristem said the relationship ended in late 2020.