At Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds, we take pride in our ability to identify the best corn hybrids and soybean varieties to match our customers’ needs. We take time to listen to our sales team, which includes our dealers, talk about the needs of farmers across Latham Country. Their information about desired characteristics helps direct our research and testing efforts.

The journey to finding new products begins with our robust collaborative access to germplasm. Latham’s Product Team works in conjunction with many germplasm sources, including our own, to fuel our search to find the best products for the specific geographic regions we serve. We also have great relationships with trait providers to bring needed traits into our products. After we either find or create the desired genetic combinations, we move into the evaluation stage of our process.

Our Elite Trial program continues to grow with additional test locations across our sales footprint. We are testing in every corner of Latham Country. This means that we test products where they would be sold, which allows us to find unique niche products that excel in a local environment.

To help position products to fulfill our needs assessment, our regional sales managers (RSMs) get an early look at the products we’re considering for our lineup. Having “in-trial” conversations about products with our sales team is a tremendous benefit to Latham’s Product Teams. In addition, conversations about products in trials helps builds confidence with our sales team to position products. We have consolidated both our corn and soybean evaluation processes into one Elite Trial system, which allows our product teams to assess data more easily.

Once we identify products from the Elite Trials that meet Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds’ standards and fulfill our customers’ needs, we release them for sale. We also place these new products in our Latham Showcase plots, as well as in the independent F.I.R.S.T. Trials program, to once again showcase the performance of these new products and to provide opportunities for our customers to gain confidence in their performance.

Latham’s track record of performance in our Showcase plots and F.I.R.S.T. Trials proves the system we have built works! Our process of beginning with a large diverse pool of genetics; testing potential new products thoroughly in all parts of our footprint; and proving our performance in our final stages of Latham Showcase and F.I.R.S.T. Trial plots complete our journey in finding outstanding products.

I’m so excited about the products we’re testing this summer and look forward to talking about them in more detail at our upcoming field days. Watch your mail and social media for more details coming soon!