BASF Crop Protection and the National Wheat Foundation had a big announcement at the 2015 Commodity Classic – the creation and implementation of a National Wheat Yield Contest.

“We appreciate the generous support of our primary industry partner, BASF, to assist in the creation of this program,” said NWF Chairman Dusty Tallman of Colorado. “We are looking forward to this contest increasing grower productivity, helping build a stronger U.S. wheat industry and increasing knowledge transfer between growers.”

Listen to the announcement at Classic here: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/basf/classic15-nwf-basf.mp3″ text=”NWF and BASF announce Wheat Yield Contest”]

The objective of the contest is ultimately to increase U.S. wheat grower productivity by driving innovation, enabling knowledge transfer between growers, experimenting with new technologies, and identifying top wheat producers in each state.

“Our goal is to help growers get the most out of every acre,” said Neil Bentley, Director of Marketing for BASF, pictured here on the left awarding this year’s wheat scholarships. “Initiatives such as the National Wheat Yield Contest give growers an opportunity to work with innovations that help them break yield barriers, and allows farmers to grow and learn from one another.”

Yield contest rules are still being developed but the competition is expected to be separated by wheat class, by dryland or irrigated and by state and region with parameters including class, geography, quality and yield.

2015 Commodity Classic Photo Album

2015 BASF Science Behind Photos