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Pioneer Research Info Availability Is Unprecedented
BETTY VALLE GEGG-NAEGER
MidAmerica Farmer Grower
JOHNSTON, IOWA
Mark Jeschke agronomy research manager with Pioneer Hybrid, based at the headquarters in Johnston, Iowa, finds it a very, very exciting time to be involved in agronomy at Pioneer.
“Our network of agronomy research and agronomy expertise in the field is larger than it’s ever been before,” he said. “It’s unprecedented in our company’s history. We’re conducting a very wide scope of agronomy research within the company and have a lot of university collaborations out there as well.”
Topics include some of the really fundamental issues in crop production: seeding rate, planting practices, pest management, and others like that with a broad nationwide scope. There also are many topics with very regional and local interest, and that’s where Pioneer can leverage the value of its university collaborations in a big way to get some local expertise and research capabilities.
“My role at Pioneer is focused largely on twittering information from our agronomy research, making that available to our personnel in the field to deliver to growers,” Jeschke said. “That’s really where the rubber hits the road. Agronomy research is making that information available in a way that’s relevant to the grower and is accessible and timely.”
Pioneer has a wide spectrum of information formats available covering specifically its research results as well as information on broader agronomic topics that might bring in university information and Pioneer research information as well.
“We try to have information available with different levels of detail,” he said. “Some information is available for those who just want the highlights or high points of a topic; and if somebody is really interested in diving into some of the details of an agronomic issue, we have information available that has some breadth to it. We have greatly expanded the information that we have, that we’re generating, that we have available to us; and also the accessibility of that information is unprecedented. We have a huge wealth of agronomy information available on pioneer.com. We have a mobile version of pioneer.com that’s formatted specifically for smart phones, mobile devices that lays that information out in a way that is conducive to viewing on a smaller screen. So with the proliferation of mobile devices, smart phones, tablets, that library of information is successful in a way that it never has been before.”
Pioneer research results are regularly posted on pioneer.com and its available there for growers. Pioneer also distributes that information out to the field.
“Probably the best source of information for a grower is their Pioneer sales rep who is aware of the information that’s available and can target that specifically to local conditions,” he said. “They are able to deliver that timely information in a way that is really appropriate for the grower; and then for growers who want to really dig into the library and research a topic, we have a huge amount of information on line for that as well.”∆
BETTY VALLE GEGG-NAEGER: Senior Staff Writer, MidAmerica Farmer Grower
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