Get the Most Out of Crop Tours

‘Tis the season for crop tours. It’s exciting to check out trials and innovations, but time away from your farm can also be a strain on your productivity. Our Syngenta reps put their heads together to provide you with their top tips to get the most out of any tour.

1. Plan for comfort

No one wants to come home from a tour sunburnt, soggy or tired of swatting bugs. Check the weather ahead of time and be prepared for the conditions. You will learn more if you are comfortable and in a good frame of mind to listen.

2. Take notes and photos

Be prepared to take your learnings home. If a topic sparks your interest, note it so that you remember to follow up later. Your phone camera is the perfect tool to quickly capture information for future reference. If you want to discuss a topic further with one of the presenters, ask for a business card and tell them you’d like to talk at a later date.

3. Ask questions

Don’t be afraid to bring up specific issues that you are facing on your operation. By discussing your situation, you will get information you can actually use on your farm and it will be relevant to other attendees who are in the same boat. 

With Syngenta’s broad range of expertise in plant breeding, crop protection and seed care, there is a good chance that someone within the organization can provide some help.  And, even if the issue you are facing can’t be addressed at that moment, good customer feedback is what we use to help steer our development programs. The better we understand the challenges facing our customers, the more effective we will be in developing solutions.

Take this list of questions to your next crop tour and bring home some info you can put to work in your fields:

• How can I take my production to the next level (both yield and quality)?
• Are technologies adding to final yield/quality when layering them on each other (e.g., seed variety, seed treatment, weed control, fungicide)?
• Do you have any other tips (e.g., seeding rate, row spacing, etc.)?