By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER
Ohio Correspondent

WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE, Ohio — Seed Consultants, Inc. (SCI), Ohio’s largest independent seed company, was sold to DuPont, which owns Pioneer Hi-Bred International (PHI), Inc. in late December.

The acquisition was part of the PROaccess business strategy that enables PHI to make its seed genetics available to more growers through a network of distributors.

The seed industry had undergone many changes since Chris Jeffries and Dan Fox started Seed Consultants in 1990. In the late 1990s corn and soybean production changed tremendously with the release of genetically modified seed, Jeffries said. Changes have accelerated rapidly, and the options for seed trait technology have dramatically increased.

“We started building a relationship with Pioneer about three years ago, and we’ve been distributing Pioneer’s Supreme EX® brand products, said Jeffries, president SCI. “We felt it was best for our customers, our employees, and our families that we go ahead and start working closer with Pioneer.
“We like working with these folks,” Jeffries said.

SCI’s brand identity is regionalized testing, and “we did a good job of that,” Jeffries said. The company will continue regionalized testing and preserve its brand identity.

“We’re still the same company, and customers shouldn’t notice any changes,” Jeffries said.

SCI’s business model is primarily a competitively priced, direct sales model.
“Our goal is that in five years we’re going to be a 250,000-bag corn company and a million and a quarter bags of soybeans,” Jeffries said. “That’s our intent. I think we did the right thing.”