A LOOK AHEAD AT THE FUTURE OF FARMING
SPONSORED CONTENT
Antoine Bernet is impressed with the evolution of the annual CrossRoads Crop Conference. He believes organizers of the 2025 event have taken feedback from participants to heart and have paid close attention to detail. “We are extremely happy to continue to be an active supporter of this event,” said Bernet, the president of Bayer Canada and head of its crop science country division.
Bayer is the platinum sponsor of the event, which will be held Jan. 28-29 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel West Edmonton. The theme of CrossRoads 2025 is “Future proof your farm,” which Bernet said resonates with Bayer, an organization that works to anticipate the needs of farmers every day and thrives on innovation. “Future proofing farms is at the core of what we do at Bayer,” he said.
It’s a process that involves listening to all industry stakeholders, including retailers and distributors, but especially to farmers. “We focus on seed, crop protection and digital agriculture, and our research and development and field agronomy teams focus on how we can make sure farmers will be successful in the future. It’s about profitability on their farm, and how they can leverage the tools they have in a sustainable manner.”
A farmer must make dozens of decisions to successfully grow and harvest a healthy crop. These include choice of seed and when to sow it. There is also choice of crop protection product, when and how much to apply, and so many more.
“Our job is to help farmers make the best decision based on their knowledge and data from our research and development pipeline,” said Bernet. As an example, Bayer is now piloting a groundbreaking digital tool through its Climate FieldView precision ag platform. Built-by-Bayer Crop Protection Prescriptions uses predictive modelling to assist farmers in making better use of fungicides. The user can make better informed decisions about when and where to apply fungicide, and how much. Bernet emphasized investment in research and development is key to the process of building products and services.
“We believe in innovation, and we invest in Alberta and Canada.” Breeding for profitability involves farmer input, he added. The process involves the use of customer-informed selection indices that help Bayer select products that optimize farm profitability.
“We work in the different geographies based on the variations we see across the country. It’s very important that we consider all the regional challenges farmers face, and we work with customers to understand how they can best leverage plant genetics.”
As they look to strengthen their operations in the future, farmers can continue to expect Bayer to anticipate the challenges they will face. Among them, climate change may bring warmer, drier conditions. As well, resistance must be managed to ensure crop inputs continue to work in the future within an environmentally friendly framework.
In its practical approach to these challenges, Bayer rolled out its new operating model across the country this past September. Bernet said this deeper, localized engagement process will benefit customers. “We completely reviewed the way we work and the way we operate,” he said. “Locally self-organized teams will have more freedom to operate, to help farmers to focus on their needs and maximize their success. We have such squads in Alberta, for example. Farmers can expect more proximity, and we’ll continue to focus on innovation and quick decision-making processes to help farmers deal with their daily activities.”
For more information on sessions and speakers or to purchase tickets, visit crossroadscropconference.ca.
Comments