b'PARTNER CONTENTHow to Choose a Variety ThatEnd-users Want to Buy WHAT ARE YOUR KEY priorities when you choose new cerealstart. While agronomics are critical, so too is knowing before varieties? Its a given that success depends on selecting optionsyou plant that someone wants to buy that new option.that best suit your farms unique growing conditions andBut it shouldnt all land on the producers shoulders: seed management style. But theres another major consideration, onecompanies need to rethink their role in the production and that so far only best-in-the-business farmers place at the top ofmarketing process too. their must have list: end-user (ie: miller or processor) demand.Alliance Seed is a seed distributor that, like several other Last Thursday, I got a call from a southern Manitoban farmerseed companies, deals primarily in bulk cereal commodities who, thanks to years of discussing new varieties together, hasfrom Western Canada. What makes us different is that we have become a friend. I was right in the middle of spreadsheets but,a direct link to the end user: we were created in large part since a call from Tom is always a great reminder of why we dobecause our owners/shareholders (P&H, Paterson Grain, and what we do andultimatelywho we do it for, I reached for myNorthWest Terminal) wanted better access to varieties that suit coffee and a pen.their specific needs. Jim, he said without pausing for small talk, whats this ImBecause of that communication link directly to buyers, were hearing about CDC Endure?committed to a very different way of variety development. We Our new oat variety, CDC Endure, offers outstandingstart the conversation about new variety development by first agronomics and yield, but thats not why Tom called me.asking what end users need, then we find unique varieties to Let me back up a bit and give you some context.suit those specific needs, and thenand this is the critical part Selling a new seed variety to farmers is done similarly by we invest time and effort to build demand among those end almost all seed companies. The formula goes like this: seedusers before the new variety is launched. companies acquire the rights to a new variety; spend severalCDC Endure is Alliance Seeds first oat variety years doing seed production before commercialization; thencommercialized using the buyer-up formula. It was chosen sell, sell, sell it to farmers; and only then start consideringbased on the specific needs end-users identified, andthough marketing to end-users.it wont be available to grow until 2022weve been actively Over the years, hundreds of thousands of acres of all kinds ofpromoting it to millers and processors for nearly three years. new and promising varieties have been planted, with farmersOur goal is that, when producers finally grow it for the first time, crossing their fingers that millers, processors or other end-useevery major oat buyer in North America will not only be ready buyers will like and buy the grain from that new variety. Inand waiting for it, theyll be asking for it by name.more cases than notand often through no fault of the varietyMy friend Tom is a top-tier farmer: as savvy a businessman - the end users dont latch on as hoped and a market demandas he is skilled in maximizing yield in his fields. By the time never materializes. Ive watched countless high-potentialhe dialed my number last week, hed already reached out to varieties from all different seed companies fizzle out in just thecontacts hes got at two major oat end-users. same way.What they told me, he said, is that they want CDC Endure.Its time to turn that time-worn formula on its head. I almost stood up and cheered. Welcome to a new and better For farmers, improving the odds for success with a newway of choosing varieties. variety requires prioritizing marketing considerations from the Fall 2021 99'