Upstream Ag Professional - March 30th 2025

Upstream Ag Professional members can find the audio edition here covers:

Stratus Ag Research is an independent agricultural market research firm that delivers data-driven insights to support agribusiness strategy and decision-making. Every two-years, they deliver an Evolution of Channel Influence Report for the Midwest USA, providing a timely and nuanced look at how grower purchasing behaviors and retail influence are shifting— particularly in the context of crop protection (CP) products.

In the full article you will find two macro themes synthesized from their Evolution of Channel Influence Report illustrating the evolution in grower expectations and retail influence throughout the Midwest United States, and what that might mean for crop protection companies and retailers from a strategy perspective going forward.

Data from Stratus shows that 20% of farmers are using a customer portal provided by their ag retailer.

Customer portals are often positioned as a “purchase experience,” however, I look at them as an augmentation of the entire customer experience— just like when I use my preferred airline’s mobile application, I am using it for more than purchasing a flight. I use it for augmenting the flight that I purchased, such as understanding where my checked bag is, getting alerts about gate changes, flight departure times and checking-in for the flight. I use it to save time, put my mind at ease and simplify my flight experience. The customer experience portals provided by ag retails are the same.

The data from Stratus reinforces the interest in an integrated experience across many areas:

The overall experience is about how the various features and functions are brought together — grain pricing, input pricing, paying invoices, finding invoices for taxes, e-signature, being alerted of a custom application completion, apply for credit, access to tools like program management, educational materials and more to add value to the farmer.

Due to sizing constraints from the charts and images in the analysis, the rest of the breakdown can be found at the link in the heading including 10 more images like the above.