We can strengthen your dealership's position in the retail ag market.

We have actively solicited independent dealers in all major grain producing regions to become licensed Opti-Crop service providers. The licensing process gives participating dealerships full access to our comprehensive lineup of intensive crop management and consulting services. This includes access to the state-of-the-art, industry-leading Opti-Crop intensive wheat management program.

As part of a license agreement, Opti-Crop helps recruit, hire, train and place qualified crop consultants to work with farmer-customers at the dealership’s retail location(s). All Opti-Crop consultants are thoroughly schooled regarding our leading edge programs and recommendations for attaining maximum economic yields.

Each consultant must meet rigorous standards regarding knowledge about agronomics and precision farming technology. They also are required to demonstrate a firm understanding of how modern farm equipment functions. Additionally, they must be highly motivated and willing to work the demanding schedule often imposed by farming’s seasonal nature.

An Opti-Crop consultant fulfills many key roles. Chief among them, however, is the responsibility to help the dealer build a strong Opti-Crop farmer-clientele within the store’s marketing area.

Farmers who enroll their acres in Opti-Crop programs and adhere to our recommendations typically enjoy improved crop performance and income. Indirectly, these positive results flow back to participating dealers in the form of enhanced customer loyalty and trust. Some store managers note that having an Opti-Crop program in place also helps them protect margins.

Putting Opti-Crop to work can spur new business too. Initially, most of a dealer’s Opti-Crop farmer-clients come from within their existing customer base. But as word spreads about the success enjoyed by farmers who are enrolled in the program, Opti-Crop becomes a selling tool that helps bring new customers through the front door.

The Opti-Crop program is particularly well structured for independent fertilizer and ag chem dealers who do not presently offer any formal crop consulting services to their customers. Furthermore, we believe that adding our services represents a critical link in strengthening a dealership’s financial position in today’s retail ag market.

Simply stated, crop consultants are playing increasingly vital roles as grain farmers find it ever more difficult to self-manage all aspects of their production systems. The growing need for consultant involvement is driven by several factors, including:

• The ongoing trend toward larger farms
• Agriculture’s increasing complexity
• Farm labor shortages
• Governmental/environmental regulations
• An enhanced array of crop choices and genetics (i.e. GMO versus non-GMO crops and value-added grains versus traditional commodity crops)
• Expanded record keeping and data management requirements
• Increased competition for land and high cash rental rates in certain regions
• Liability issues and more

Collectively, these challenges often detract from a grower’s ability to devote sufficient attention to each critical phase of crop production. In today’s thin-margin environment, overlooking or improperly managing just one variable may be the determining factor in whether a crop in any given field generates a healthy net profit or incurs a loss.

The Opti-Crop intensive crop management and consulting program is time-tested and field-proven in its ability to keep growers focused on all variables that contribute to yield and income. Our consultants help growers micro-manage fields and fine-tune their production systems. The net result is enhanced grower profitability born from optimal use of inputs, increased yields and reduced risk exposure.

A program that benefits growers’ financial health also tends to be good news for the dealers they purchase inputs from. Thus, it behooves dealers to work closely with a well-established crop consulting firm that can help enhance their farmer-customers’ productivity and profitability. Opti-Crop provides the premiere model for accomplishing exactly that.

THE OPTI-CROP DIFFERENCE

Not all crop consultants or consulting companies are created the same. Some do a good job focusing on agronomics, but pay little attention to equipment-related issues. Others may offer excellent scouting services and timely recommendations during the growing season, but don’t engage clients in much pre-season planning or after-harvest analysis.

At Opti-Crop, we steadfastly believe it’s important to offer a full spectrum of services and maintain an all-year-round consultant-client relationship. Though our programs can be individually tailored to meet specific needs, we generally insist upon advising and assisting growers through all phases and aspects of the crop production cycle. That means working closely with them before, during and after the growing season.

Furthermore, our level of involvement with clients goes well beyond the realm of pure agronomics. We also address equipment-related issues in hands-on fashion.

For example, our consultants get in the game early by helping growers select and position wheat varieties, corn hybrids and soybean varieties that are optimally suited to each of their field environments. Then we advise and assist them with planter, drill or air seeder maintenance, calibration and operation. After all, the best genetics in the world won’t perform at full potential if not planted properly.

Opti-Crop consultants work with growers to make sure air seeders, drills and row-unit planters are
properly maintained, calibrated and operated to ensure uniform seed placement.
This air-seeding unit is shown planting wheat on the farm of one of our clients in South Dakota.

From crop emergence onward, Opti-Crop consultants inspect fields regularly to make assessments and recommendations regarding the full gamut of agronomic variables. Among the key factors they look at are stand counts, crop growth stage, plant health, soil fertility, and pest problems such as weed, insect or disease infestations.

Vigilant field scouting is the only practical way to determine whether various types of input applications are necessary and economically justified. When they are needed, we advise growers regarding product options, proper treatment rates and timings.

After recommendations are issued, Opti-Crop consultants make appropriately timed return visits to farms to ascertain whether treatments were applied as prescribed and assess efficacy. This approach intensifies grower awareness of crop status. And it optimizes the productive potential of their investment.

Our consultants track crop progress and conditions all the way to full maturity. As the season winds toward harvest, they keep tabs on crucial factors such as crop moisture, standability and lodging potential. This late-season scrutiny enables them to help growers schedule harvest in an appropriate field-by-field sequence.

Opti-Crop consultants maintain a watchful eye on the
progress of corn, soybeans, wheat and other crops
through all stages of development.

In many cases our consultants even prepare yield estimates. This often helps grower-clients make pre-harvest grain marketing and pricing decisions with greater confidence.

We’re in the field at harvest time too. Opti-Crop consultants work with combine operators to make sure yield monitors are calibrated correctly (if applicable). They also check to ensure residue gets distributed evenly behind the machines. This is especially important in a no-till setting and makes planting the next crop in the rotation easier.

After harvest we’re still on the scene. We help clients analyze yield maps and layer them with other pertinent data. We seek to identify trends occurring within each field, draw accurate conclusions about them and make well-founded recommendations regarding future crop management practices on a field-by-field basis.

BACKED BY RESEARCH

Sound research and extensive technical knowledge drawn from many expert sources back all agronomic and equipment recommendations made by Opti-Crop consultants. The Miles R&D program in Kentucky, for example, annually conducts studies in thousands of replicated plots and distributes the results to all of our consultants in that region.

Each consultant, in conjunction with the dealership they serve, also conducts numerous on-farm strip trials and variety test plots with various clients. This activity provides excellent local data to share with current store customers and key prospects.

In addition to our proprietary research, we regularly examine applicable data and information generated by land grant universities and other reliable sources in our domestic service areas as well as from other countries around the globe. All of this positions Opti-Crop consultants on the leading edge of technical knowledge and expertise.

Richard Baylis, Opti-Crop consultant based at Miles Farm Supply,
Hatfield, Ind., checks on grain development in one of his client’s wheat fields.

PRECISION AGRICULTURE SPECIALISTS

Miles Opti-Crop has been closely involved with precision agriculture since it first became a buzzword upon the farming landscape. We’ve gained tremendous insight into the ramifications of this frontier-expanding technology through our own internal research and via extensive interaction with farmer-customers who’ve explored various elements of it.

Due to our long-term, wide-ranging experience in this arena, Opti-Crop consultants are well positioned and equipped to wisely advise growers regarding evaluation and adoption of precision farming tools. If your store has not gotten very involved with this technology, Opti-Crop offers opportunities to develop precision ag services as another profit center for your business.

Some of the precision farming services we can provide to your customers include:

• Yield monitor selection, yield mapping and yield data analysis
• GIS software selection assistance
• Assistance with GPS hardware selection and operation
• Grid soil sampling adjusted for soil type, management zones or topography
• Recommendations for variable rate nutrient applications and seeding
• Geo-referencing of field boundaries and drainage tile lines

Most Opti-Crop farmer-clients are running yield monitors in their combines and mapping yields.
Gathering accurate yield data is an important first step for enabling growers –
and the dealers who serve them – to get the most out of precision farming technology.

TESTED, PROVEN & READY TO WORK FOR YOU

Few dealerships today have enough time to start and develop top-flight crop consulting services of their own. That’s why becoming a licensed Opti-Crop service provider makes great sense. Our program can be quickly and smoothly integrated into a new location without impinging heavily on either the store manager’s time or the duties of other personnel.

As previously noted, the Opti-Crop central office in Owensboro, Ky., helps manage the recruitment, hiring and training of consultants for each location that we serve. Naturally, store manager input is sought during this process. But you’re essentially freed from having to devote a lot of your own valuable time and effort to this aspect.

Consider all the benefits you ultimately get with an Opti-Crop service agreement:

• An established crop consulting program with a proven track record
• Intensive crop management training and support spanning all major domestic grain crops
• Improved profitability for both growers and dealers through more efficient use of available resources
• Assistance with major equipment and input purchasing decisions
• A system that performs 12 months a year and addresses all crop production variables in hands-on fashion
• Excellent access to extensive proprietary research data and other technical information from local, national and worldwide sources
• An effective, proven template for conducting your own local crop research and trials
• Leading-edge information and recommendations regarding precision agriculture technology
• A flexible system that can quickly be tailored to meet local needs
• Consultant involvement frees growers and dealers from having to spend as much time looking at fields themselves, which allows for more focus on other critical operations.
• Commitment from the Miles Opti-Crop management team to service and respond to licensees’ needs on a timely, professional basis
• And much more.

When you add it all up, Opti-Crop stands at the front of the line as a model crop consulting program. We can help improve your grower-clients’ financial status as well as your store’s bottom line.