Seed Today

Milwaukee, WI (January 18, 2010) -- To manage increasing awareness of and demand for its inoculant and crop enhancement technologies, EMD Crop BioScience has recently added three sales representatives in new territories in the United States and Canada.

Lynn Justesen will join EMD as a sales representative for Western Iowa, Chuck Haefele has been assigned the Nebraska territory, and Wyatt Burnett has assumed responsibility for the newly created South Western Prairies territory in Canada.

Over the past sixteen years, Justesen has held positions with Agriliance, Winfield Solutions and more recently Aurora Cooperative in Nebraska. He received a B.A. degree from Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kan.

Haefele’s past includes a successful career within Nebraska as a sales representative for DuPont/Pioneer and, more recently, a history of successful business ventures in the state. He received a B.S. degree in Agriculture and a Masters in Agronomy from the University of Missouri.

Burnett is a member of the Saskatchewan Institute of Agrologists and was previously manager of agronomic services with Viterra. He attended the University of Saskatchewan where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from the College of Agriculture with a major in Agronomy.

“The intended focus of this expansion of our sales force is on service,” says Paul Schmidt, President of EMD Crop BioScience. “Our priority is to assist the growers and retailers in those territories whose demands for information and technical assistance are growing faster than ever.”

EMD Crop BioScience produces and distributes a number of innovative inoculants and crop enhancement products, most notably those containing the patented LCO Promoter Technology® found in products such as Optimize 400 for soybeans. LCO Promoter Technology is a naturally-occurring molecule that brings unprecedented early-season plant health benefits to a number of crops – both legumes and non-legumes. For more information, go to EMDCropBioScience.com.

Originally founded as the Nitragin Company in 1898 after a Milwaukee entrepreneur purchased rights to a commercial process for the production of nitrogen-fixing rhizobia, Nitragin remained privately owned until 1982. In 1991 Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany purchased the business. Now headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, EMD Crop BioScience is committed to advancing crop-enhancing technologies and making these products available to growers worldwide.

Merck is a global pharmaceutical and chemical company with total revenues of € 7.6 billion in 2008, a history that began in 1668, and a future shaped by 32,700 employees in 60 countries. Its success is characterized by innovations from entrepreneurial employees. Merck's operating activities come under the umbrella of Merck KGaA, in which the Merck family holds an approximately 70% interest and free shareholders own the remaining approximately 30%. In 1917 the U.S. subsidiary Merck & Co. was expropriated and has been an independent company ever since.

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