By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Farmers look forward to a better 2024 after struggling through two years of dry conditions, which at times entered into drought.
Director of Business Operations for BASF, Nick Schweizer, says farmers will need a sharp pencil entering a new year.
“Paying very close attention to operating costs,” Schweizer tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “So, those decisions are so much more critical this year, because normally a grower operating loan, what I hear they’re paying is 6-to-8% interest rate on that and three years ago it was half that. So, those decisions are super, super critical now.”
The amount of operating loans taken out by farmers is down, which leaves Schweizer to believe farmers have been dipping into savings.
Schweizer says the company is attempting to adjust to help farmers feeling a bit of a squeeze preparing for a new production year.
“Any BASF product that’s purchased between now and March 15th gets a 1.99% interest rate, any after that it’s a 2.99% with terms due at the end of the harvest,” Schweizer says. “So, it fits right in with their operation.”
Schweizer advises farmers to set aside worries and plan, including planning for managing weeds.
A new product by BASF, which has been 10 years in the making, should come on the market next year, according to Schweizer.
“We hope to get registration in 2024 on Surtain herbicide and Surtain herbicide is our next generation Kixor-related technology,” Schweizer says. “And why is Surtain more interesting? Well, it’s because of this very first solid encapsulation technology which means you open up the window of application on Kixor. So, if I’m a corn grower and I want to use Kixor, I can now use it pre-and-post emergence.”
BASF also hopes to register Liberty Ultra for the 2024 soybean crop.
“Which is a patented technology and what happens is the droplets hit the leaf and they’re much more sticky and they spread much easier,” Schweitzer says. “And so your coverage improves quite significantly.”
Schweizer says Liberty Ultra will provide greater coverage with lower usage rates.