About John Latham, President

John Latham serves as president of Latham Hi-Tech Seeds. Prior to founding his own seed corn business in April 2004, he spent 15 years as a regional sales manager and as sales director for his family’s soybean-only business. John earned a bachelor’s degree in Ag Business from Iowa State University, and then worked for two years as a production agronomist with Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. A strong advocate in the seed industry, John has served as president of the Iowa Seed Association and is active in the American Seed Trade Association.

Technology Redefines Agriculture

Posted on January 30, 2012 by John Latham, President

What defines modern agriculture?

It’s a question that I’ve been pondering ever since reading an article Jan. 19 by Terence Loose listing “agriculture” as the most useless college major. More than anything, I believe his article illustrates how little the general public knows about production agriculture. I dare say Loose envisions farming more like it was in the 1950s or 1960s than it is today.

Agriculture has changed dramatically over the years, and it’s become even more technologically advanced in the past 5 to 10 years alone. In fact, agriculture is like lot the car industry. One used to have to custom order power windows. Today power windows come standard on new vehicles just like most technology comes standard today on agricultural products.

Technological advancements in the seed industry is just one example. One hundred percent of Latham® Hi-Tech Soybean seed is traited, and about 95% of the corn hybrids we sell contain technologies that make crops resistant to insects or certain chemicals.

High-tech seeds means there’s a lot of science in each bag! Think about the highly educated and skilled people it takes to research and create new technologies and genetics, develop them for commercial production, condition the seeds, and then sell them to the farmers, who produce food, clothing and fuel for the world.

New seed technologies – have and will continue to – set new expectations for the yields farmers can achieve. When Roundup® Ready soybeans were introduced in 1996, they set the standard for soybean yields for a decade. Today Latham® soybeans with the Genuity®Roundup Ready® 2 Yield technology are redefining yield expectations. Latham soybeans with the RR2 trait have been out-yielding the competition consistently for the past two harvest seasons. Soon Vistive® Gold soybeans will produce an oil similar to the content of olive oil but much easier and cheaper to produce.

On the corn side of our business, technology is progressing at an equally fast pace. Innovations are making it even simpler to comply with refuge requirements. New for 2012 Latham has introduced Genuity VT2 PRO RIB Complete, as well as Genuity® SmartStax® RIB Complete. Other new technologies coming include a new rootworm trait from Syngenta called Agrisure® Duracade™ and crops resistant to 2-4D chemistry from Dow Agrosciences called Enlist™ just to name a couple.

Seed traits are just one example of how technology has – and continues – to redefine production agriculture. “Technology” obviously has many different meanings within agriculture, and the definition largely depends on what a person does from day-to-day. A quick poll on Facebook and a few e-mails to our friends in the industry produced this list of ag technologies:

GPS
Auto-steer tractors
Smart Phones
Slow-release fertilizer
RFID technology for livestock

And the list goes on! How has technology transformed your own operation?

Soybean Spotlight: L2084R2 Deserves an Encore!

Posted on December 5, 2011 by John Latham, President

Corn has been stealing the spotlight recently with headlines like “2012 Corn Acres to Rise”. With all of the focus being put on corn, we’d like to take this opportunity to shine the spotlight on some outstanding soybean numbers. Today we’re featuring Latham L2084R2.

Latham L2084R2 topped 26 strip trials in 2011, beating elite genetics in its maturity across northern Iowa, southern Minnesota, southern Wisconsin and eastern South Dakota. It’s not often that we promote a specific product on our blog. With results like this, however, we honestly believe we’d be doing a disservice to soybean growers if we kept it under wraps!

Here are several reasons why L2084R2 is dominating:

Contains the Genuity® Roundup Ready 2 gene, which is consistently out-performing the original Roundup Ready trait found in Pioneer® brand soybeans and in other brands
Ranks highest for emergence, stress and no-till
Is resistant to Soybean Cyst Nematode
Has complete Brown Stem Rot resistance
Is tolerant to Iron Chlorosis
Contains the K gene for Phytophthora Root Rot resistance
Has good White Mold tolerance

With all of these attributes, it’s no wonder that L2084R2 is Latham’s top-selling soybean product. Just keep in mind that you’re best served when you plant three or four different Latham® Hi-Tech Soybean products to minimize risk and maximize returns. You can put together a crop plan with other great Latham® numbers like these:

While everyone else is wrapping gifts and putting presents under the tree, remember to give yourself a gift this season. Order your Latham L2084R2 today, while supplies are available!

Farmers Have New R-I-B Option

Posted on November 28, 2011 by John Latham, President

There’s big news across the seed industry! Genuity® VT Double PRO® RIB Complete™ recently received registration from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

This is great news for Latham Hi-Tech Seeds customers as they will have another true, single-bag refuge option (RIB) for managing above-ground pests. Genuity VT2 PRO RIB Complete, as well as Genuity® SmartStax® RIB Complete, will be broadly available to farmers in 2012.

Latham’s Genuity VT2 PRO RIB Complete is a blend of 95% Genuity VT Double Pro and 5% refuge (non-BT) seed, delivering the lowest refuge in the corn growing area for above ground pests. VT2 PRO is actually a triple-stack product as it contains two traits for above-ground protection of pests like European Corn Borer, Corn Earworm and Fall Armyworm, in addition to the Roundup Ready trait. I look at this product as a different kind of triple stack, one that is specifically made for rotated ground and not for corn-on-corn situations.
Contact your local Latham® dealer or call our office at 1-877-GO-LATHAM to order your Latham Genuity VT2 PRO today!

The following Latham hybrids are still available as Latham Genuity VT Double Pro RIB Complete: LH 3557 VT2 PRO, LH 4227 VT2 PRO, LH 5465 VT2 PRO and LH 5875 VT2 PRO. All four of these products are tremendous new genetics that offer fantastic top-end yields in rotated ground.