Smart Seed Selection Tool Pledges to Close Yield Gap
Farm Journal’s Smart Farming Week is an annual week-long emphasis on innovation in agriculture. The goal is to encourage you to explore and prioritize the technology, tools and practices that will help you farm smarter. Innovation today ensures an efficient, productive and sustainable tomorrow.
Yield Optimizer by AcreShield is the new kid on the block when it comes to seed selection tools.
It’s an intriguing concept: a digital platform that aggregates massive amounts of independent seed performance and soil data (other data layers play a part, as well) to drill down to a performance-ranked list of the top corn and soybean seed varieties for each user’s unique location.
What is AcreShield and Yield Optimizer?
AcreShield is not a crop insurance provider. Rather, farmers who use Yield Optimizer and select their varieties based on the performance data presented get additional yield protection coverage of 100% of their farms historical average. This is beyond the standard 85% that most risk management programs typically offer.
“Every row crop farmer out there can buy crop insurance up to 85%, but not from 85% to 100%. This is what we call the ‘Yield Gap’ where they can't get any protection for that last, very important 15%,” AcreShield CEO Billy Rose explains.
Rose says Yield Optimizer is the only seed selection tool that provides a yield performance guarantee. The company, which is independent of any seed company or retail channel affiliation, is testing over 1,000 corn varieties in over 250 field trials across the Midwest this summer.
AcreShield provides market transparency due to independent testing that is conducted in real-world conditions. It’s being viewed by some seed companies as an independent testing source to validate their marketing claims. Plot trial managers even conduct some “secret shopping” to be able to test the latest varieties.
Users can claim cash payouts up to 7X if the seed they selected doesn’t exceed 100% of their historical yield average. All based on the farmers yield history and harvest performance, not the county.
“From a pricing viewpoint, we have good ($5 per acre), better ($8) and best ($15) with different features at each Yield Optimizer tier, and the performance payouts are 5:1 (good) or 7:1 (better and best),” Rose says. “We give a performance guarantee that if you don't get over 100% of your yield history (APH), we'll write you a check for up to seven times what you paid for the Yield Optimizer.”
Rose himself knows a phenomenon when he sees it. The ag entrepreneur grew up on a farm outside Dyersville, Iowa, right around the corner from the original Field of Dreams complex. AcreShield’s operations are headquartered in Des Moines, home of another cultural phenomenon: Iowa Hawkeyes sharpshooter and future WNBA #1 Overall Pick Caitlyn Clark.
“When I go back, I would like to be able to say we’re helping these farmers survive these really tough commodity prices right now,” he says. “When you think about a 200 APH corn field per acre, if you could find 40 bushels in extra yield per acre with smart seed intelligence, that’s a 20% improvement. Now you’re solving that yield gap problem with the confidence of a performance guarantee.”
Where does the data come from?
Yield Optimizer conducted three years of seed trials to build out its database. Again, it is completely independent of any of the big seed companies or ag retail network. Rose likes to tell farmers that AcreShield is the Consumer Reports for seed variety testing, with trusted and unbiased data.
“What we're able to do is really put what we call the farmer first,” Rose adds. “We'd like to turn the pyramid upside down and say, let's focus on our farming friends and their problems. It's your farm, it's your legacy. So, protect it with intelligent seed selection that comes with a guarantee.”
Watch: AcreShield CEO Billy Rose Explains the Yield Gap
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