Business
The local advantage of CROPLAN
Learn how CROPLAN has connected local research, retailer ownership and grower success for over 30 years
For generations, local ag retailers have helped growers navigate some of the most important decisions on the farm. They know the local growing conditions, understand the challenges growers face and often serve as trusted advisors through every stage of the season. That trust is earned over years of conversations, recommendations and results.
When retailers recommend a seed product, they're working on more than a sales opportunity. They're putting their reputation on the line. That’s why many retailers choose to put CROPLAN at the center of their seed business.
“In good times or bad, what better person to buy from than yourself,” says Ryan Eklund, seed business director at Keystone Cooperative, a Land O’Lakes retail owner. “A farmer-owned cooperative fits that buying model. And I think many farmers might look at that the same way with CROPLAN being a co-op owned brand.”
For generations, local ag retailers have helped growers navigate some of the most important decisions on the farm.
Keeping it local
For more than 30 years, independent ag retailers have used CROPLAN to serve growers with confidence. Through local agronomic insights, product evaluations and a cooperative ownership model, CROPLAN gives retailers the knowledge and information they need to make recommendations they believe in.
One reason retailers have confidence in CROPLAN is the local insight behind it. Through the WinField United Answer Plot® program, CROPLAN products are evaluated across a range of local environments to generate agronomic insights and data that help inform recommendations. Rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach, the program helps retailers understand how products perform across different conditions and make recommendations that are informed by experiences relevant to their customers.
One reason retailers have confidence in CROPLAN is the local insight behind it.
The cooperative model creates a connection between product performance and likelihood of local success. “When retailers and the growers they serve choose CROPLAN, they’re investing back locally,” says Ryan Rubischko, vice president of marketing for WinField United. “But it still has to be a product farmers have confidence in for their own farms.”
As retailers support CROPLAN, they are supporting the broader Land O'Lakes and WinField United system. Investments in research, innovation and agronomic support help strengthen member-owner businesses, then the cooperative model helps share that value across the network.
When retailers recommend a seed product, they're working on more than a sales opportunity — they're putting their reputation on the line.
Trusted relationships
Andrew Hoffman, marketing director for WinField United, says that ownership mindset is what sets the brand apart.
"For our owners, CROPLAN is their defensible brand, their owner brand. That puts farmers first and them in control," Andrew says. “They're buying peace of mind, and they're helping to invest in the future of their farm and the future of their local communities.”
The value of CROPLAN isn't measured solely in acres planted or products sold. It's found in the relationship between retailers and growers, the confidence behind a recommendation and the trust that's built season after season.
Local insights, trusted relationships and cooperative ownership is what makes CROPLAN different.
“The farmer is the hero of the story, and the Keystone account relationship manager is the guide,” says Ryan Eklund, who has spent the entirety of his career working in the seed industry. “When the Keystone team is confident in product performance and they understand the placement and the yield observations, that gives our team confidence to position it.”
For retailers like Keystone, that combination of local insights, trusted relationships and cooperative ownership is what makes CROPLAN different. It's not simply a seed recommendation. It's a way for retailers to help growers succeed while strengthening the cooperative system and the local relationships built over decades.
