In selling its eight-trait SmartStax corn hybrids, Monsanto is not only competing with competitors’ hybrids, but also its own triple-stacked hybrids, says Brett Begemann, the company’s executive vice president for seeds and traits.

“Has this been more challenging than we anticipated?” said Begemann at a Goldman Sachs’ biotech forum in New York in early February. “Yes, it has. But I still feel good about where we will be in the next 2 years.”

Monsanto is selling enough SmartStax seed for about 4 million acres this year. According to a published report in the Des Moines Register, Begemann told analysts that SmartStax is competing against its corn hybrids with triple-stacked traits that it sells through the company’s DeKalb seed brand and subsidiaries like Kruger,Fontanelle and Holden’s.

SmartStax, which both Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences’ Mycogen Seeds are offering this year, received approval from the Environmental Protection Agency for a 5% refuge in the Corn Belt. Other hybrids sold by competitors require an EPA-mandated refuge of 20% in the Corn Belt.

In Other No-Till News

• The commercialization of biotech wheat is a matter of “when” and not “if” it will happen, says Rebecca Bratten, director of policy for U.S. Wheat Associates. “Our board has directed us to go ahead and commit to the research and commercialization of biotech wheat,” Bratten says.
• John Deere has introduced a 23-row 2510H nutrient applicator, a 57.5-foot-wide tool that can be used for pre-plant, sidedress and fall fertilizer application.
• Monsanto has received EPA approval for a…