On the off chance you've been living under a rock and didn't catch the HUGE news in Ag today, here it is:
Today 360 Yield Center announced "an allied distribution agreement" (whatever that means) with Mother Deere. Now, you may be thinking, "you've been doing special podcasts when Deere buys someone out lately... So why aren't you podcasting this tonight?" And the answer is, "for a couple of reasons."
First and foremost, DEERE DID NOT BUY 360 Yield Center. So while I don't want to go so far as to say, "there's nothing to see here" on some level that is kind of how I feel.
The deal enables Mother Deere to "sell and support" the 360 Y-Drops and the 360 UnderCover systems. Let's take a look at what this actually means.
1. Deere is "endorsing" the 360 YDrop and the 360 UnderCover. I must confess that sometimes I get a little myopic in my view of the Ag world. I was reminded just last week that not every farmer is on social media when a middle aged farmer said to me in the middle of a conversation, "what's a Y-Drop?"
In my world, I'm used to having the biweekly Twitter battle with someone who is annoyed because of all the social media buzz about Y-Drops. But not every farmer is like that. There are a A LOT of farmers who still haven't even heard of Y-Drops. What this deal with JD does then is that it gives us the chance toannoy reach all farmers, not just those on social media. This leads to the second implication of this deal which is:
2. Dear fellow 360 Dealers... We have done a craptastically woeful job of getting the word out about 360 Yield Center. Read between the lines here people. If 360 is going to be financially solvent in 10 years (or even 3 years) then we have to turn a profit. Apparently we haven't been doing that. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that this deal will most likely dramatically increase 360's sales. And that part, I must confess, frustrates me. I'm not frustrated with 360 or with Deere-- I'm disappointed in us dealers (myself included).
Guys... What have we been doing? Seriously. Selling Y-Drops to farmers ought to be like shooting fish in a barrel with a rocket launcher. If we help educate our growers to understand the Y-Drop, it is literally a no-brainer to buy one.
And if you're a farmer or a dealer and your thought is "but they're too expensive..." Then I want you to think about what your actual hang up is. It's not price. You probably have a $200k machine to hang these on. So no, they're not too expensive. Your sprayer was too expensive, but you bought that. Your ACTUAL complaint is that you don't understand the value. You are, for some reason, not convinced that they are worth the asking price. It's not the price itself that bothers you... It's the lack of perceived value for that price that you don't like.
And that's ok. That just means that, like Lucy, I got some 'splainin' to do.
These things are all but guaranteed to pay for themselves IN ONE YEAR if used correctly. But that's the catch isn't it? This is not a toy or even a new tool to go sidedress. It is literally a revolution in nitrogen application. As dealers we need to have the balls to tell guys it's time to play the #NitrogenLimbo (don't worry, I'll explain what that means in the next article... The one that I was going to write before this news broke today), and to show them that yield is not king, PROFITABILITY is. The Y-Drop has the potential to have the single biggest impact on agriculture since Norman Borlaug... IF we start to understand that Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) actually matters.
This all brings me to the second reason why I'm blogging tonight and not podcasting.
I'm sitting in a hotel room in East Peoria, IL on my iPad. I don't have my computer and I don't have my microphone, because tomorrow is the 360 Yield Center fall preview. By the time that most of you read this, I'll be sitting in a meeting at 360's corporate HQ in Morton, IL. And I hope that I'm not listening to Gregg defend this move against a bunch of whining and complaining.
On some level, did every JD dealer in America just become my competition? Yep. Well, not really, because let's be honest, not every JD dealer is going to want to mess with ANOTHER new line of products. (Case in point, rumor has it that there are several JD dealers in Central IL that aren't going to carry Hagies.) But the point is this-- who cares? Do you have any idea the benefit that we will reap as dealers by having nearly every Deere dealership with a 360 sign in the store and farmers who aren't on social media asking, "What's 360 Yield Center?"
I, for one, am going to Keep Calm and 360 on.
If you have questions about 360 Yield Center products, nitrogen management, or just generally want to have a more profitable farming operation, give me a call and I'll be more than happy to help you. 641-919-5574
Today 360 Yield Center announced "an allied distribution agreement" (whatever that means) with Mother Deere. Now, you may be thinking, "you've been doing special podcasts when Deere buys someone out lately... So why aren't you podcasting this tonight?" And the answer is, "for a couple of reasons."
First and foremost, DEERE DID NOT BUY 360 Yield Center. So while I don't want to go so far as to say, "there's nothing to see here" on some level that is kind of how I feel.
The deal enables Mother Deere to "sell and support" the 360 Y-Drops and the 360 UnderCover systems. Let's take a look at what this actually means.
1. Deere is "endorsing" the 360 YDrop and the 360 UnderCover. I must confess that sometimes I get a little myopic in my view of the Ag world. I was reminded just last week that not every farmer is on social media when a middle aged farmer said to me in the middle of a conversation, "what's a Y-Drop?"
In my world, I'm used to having the biweekly Twitter battle with someone who is annoyed because of all the social media buzz about Y-Drops. But not every farmer is like that. There are a A LOT of farmers who still haven't even heard of Y-Drops. What this deal with JD does then is that it gives us the chance to
2. Dear fellow 360 Dealers... We have done a craptastically woeful job of getting the word out about 360 Yield Center. Read between the lines here people. If 360 is going to be financially solvent in 10 years (or even 3 years) then we have to turn a profit. Apparently we haven't been doing that. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that this deal will most likely dramatically increase 360's sales. And that part, I must confess, frustrates me. I'm not frustrated with 360 or with Deere-- I'm disappointed in us dealers (myself included).
Guys... What have we been doing? Seriously. Selling Y-Drops to farmers ought to be like shooting fish in a barrel with a rocket launcher. If we help educate our growers to understand the Y-Drop, it is literally a no-brainer to buy one.
And if you're a farmer or a dealer and your thought is "but they're too expensive..." Then I want you to think about what your actual hang up is. It's not price. You probably have a $200k machine to hang these on. So no, they're not too expensive. Your sprayer was too expensive, but you bought that. Your ACTUAL complaint is that you don't understand the value. You are, for some reason, not convinced that they are worth the asking price. It's not the price itself that bothers you... It's the lack of perceived value for that price that you don't like.
And that's ok. That just means that, like Lucy, I got some 'splainin' to do.
These things are all but guaranteed to pay for themselves IN ONE YEAR if used correctly. But that's the catch isn't it? This is not a toy or even a new tool to go sidedress. It is literally a revolution in nitrogen application. As dealers we need to have the balls to tell guys it's time to play the #NitrogenLimbo (don't worry, I'll explain what that means in the next article... The one that I was going to write before this news broke today), and to show them that yield is not king, PROFITABILITY is. The Y-Drop has the potential to have the single biggest impact on agriculture since Norman Borlaug... IF we start to understand that Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) actually matters.
This all brings me to the second reason why I'm blogging tonight and not podcasting.
I'm sitting in a hotel room in East Peoria, IL on my iPad. I don't have my computer and I don't have my microphone, because tomorrow is the 360 Yield Center fall preview. By the time that most of you read this, I'll be sitting in a meeting at 360's corporate HQ in Morton, IL. And I hope that I'm not listening to Gregg defend this move against a bunch of whining and complaining.
On some level, did every JD dealer in America just become my competition? Yep. Well, not really, because let's be honest, not every JD dealer is going to want to mess with ANOTHER new line of products. (Case in point, rumor has it that there are several JD dealers in Central IL that aren't going to carry Hagies.) But the point is this-- who cares? Do you have any idea the benefit that we will reap as dealers by having nearly every Deere dealership with a 360 sign in the store and farmers who aren't on social media asking, "What's 360 Yield Center?"
I, for one, am going to Keep Calm and 360 on.
If you have questions about 360 Yield Center products, nitrogen management, or just generally want to have a more profitable farming operation, give me a call and I'll be more than happy to help you. 641-919-5574
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