30 CAAR COMMUNICATOR TRIAL DATA At the heart of the INTENT trial system are the 1,500 growers across the continents of North and South America that comprise their FarmerTrials Network. “With MAXENTIS, we developed a specification with the ADAMA team to define the type of trials—in this case side-by-side, 15-acre strip trials—the crops they want to include and the geography they want to cover,” noted Comte. “Then, based on that specification, we selected the qualifying farmers in our network to participate in the trials.” Comte said that once the participating farmers are finalized, the INTENT team walks each farmer through the details of the study and answers any questions prior to implementation. This hands-on approach removes any ambiguity and ensures each trial is done strictly to specification. “We have a very high execution rate on these trials,” Comte stated. “We work with growers that have really good geospatial data, which we then overlay with our data that we collect during our field visits—the harvest data, satellite imagery, weather, and soils—to paint a picture of how those products are performing in the real-world environment.” From top to bottom, ADAMA was impressed with the quality of the data they got from the trial, but also with the unprecedented 100 percent return of trial data from the farmers who tested their product. “The quality of the data and the way it was presented really spoke for itself, but for us to also have that level of data from each of the farmers participating in the trials was unheard of,” said Cornie Thiessen, General Manager at ADAMA Canada. “It really allowed us to prove this product in pretty much every corner of Western Canada.” Comte noted that in addition to providing data, each participating farmer is asked to fill out a survey, which is used to provide feedback on user experience, something the ADAMA sales team highly appreciates. “We were able to glean some important takeaways from the grower survey,” revealed Edbom. “That anecdotal feedback is so important because it all adds up to a better product; not just one that works well, but one that is maybe easier to work with.” Having this one-two punch of quantitative and qualitative data meant Edbom’s sales team could confidently show their retailer and farmer customers definitive data sourced from their own backyard so they could be confident in their decision to use the product. Changing the Game on Resistance Following the success of last year’s MAXENTIS trial and introduction, the ADAMA and INTENT teams sat down to plan this summer’s project: the trial of a new herbicide that was formulated to take on the top weed challenge in Western Canada, herbicide-resistant wild oats. “Our whole company is so excited to see the outcome of this trial project,” summed up Thiessen. “Obviously, we wouldn’t even be going to this level if our small-plot trials and lab work hadn’t pointed to a winner. But when we get to see the results at the scale and detail that we do working with INTENT, that’s a real game-changer.” Cornie Thiessen, General Manager of Adama Canada, is a keynote speaker at the 2024 CAAR Connect Convention at the Delta Regina, November 19 to 21. Cornie has invested in building a great team committed to advancing Canadian agriculture by being a hardworking, high-integrity partner to distribution and retail. These investments have driven strong growth and set the stage for an ambitious future. A farmer examining a soybean plant as part of INTENT’s 1,500-member FarmerTrials Network in North and South America. Glenn Dickson photo
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