{"id":8370,"date":"2014-02-18T08:19:13","date_gmt":"2014-02-18T15:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/?p=8370"},"modified":"2014-02-18T08:20:07","modified_gmt":"2014-02-18T15:20:07","slug":"beck-named-2014-agribusiness-leader-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/?p=8370","title":{"rendered":"Beck Named 2014 Agribusiness Leader of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/images\/\/SonnyBeck14.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-8375\" alt=\"SonnyBeck14\" src=\"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/images\/\/SonnyBeck14.gif\" width=\"100\" height=\"155\" \/><\/a>NAMA is pleased to announce<b>\u00c2\u00a0<\/b> Sonny Beck, president, Beck\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Hybrids, as the 2014 Agribusiness Leader of the Year. This award, which is NAMA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s highest honor, will be presented at the Opening General Session of the 2014 Agri-Marketing Conference, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A Fresh Perspective,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d April 10, 2014, in Jacksonville, Florida. The award honors outstanding leaders in agribusiness, education, government service or other agribusiness related areas who exemplify excellence in agribusiness by their significant contributions to the industry.<\/p>\n<p>Sonny Beck, president of Beck\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Hybrids, has led the company to unprecedented growth. As the largest family-owned seed company in the United States, Beck\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Hybrids is now the sixth largest seed company in the U.S. Under Sonny\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leadership, Beck\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Hybrids has experienced a 20 percent increase in sales each year for the last 20 years, doubling in size every four years.<\/p>\n<p>As soon as Beck joined the family operation in 1964, after graduating from Purdue University, he never let grass grow under his feet. Always aiming at building closer, stronger relationships with customers, Beck immediately launched a couple of customer events that are now long-standing traditions.<\/p>\n<p>It was in that same year, Beck started what is now called the Practical Farm Research (PFR)\u00c2\u00ae program. Still today, the PFR program is unlike any other in the seed industry. Focused on farmer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s needs, hundreds of studies are completed at five Beck\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s locations in an effort to look at how different management practices perform in different environments. The information is delivered to farmers across the Midwest in a 280-page summary book, website and field shows.<\/p>\n<p>Beck has frequently stated that before 1992 Beck\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Hybrids was a seed producer who happened to do some marketing, but with the arrival of traits, Beck\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s became a marketing company who happened to produce most of their own seed.<\/p>\n<p>But it was not just traits that Beck and the Beck\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Hybrids team pursued. In 2001, Beck\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Hybrids was the first to market 100 percent of its seed corn with a seed-applied insect control system called FaSTart\u00c2\u00ae. Over time the seed treatment evolved and in 2009 Beck\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Hybrids became the first seed company to put together a unique set of yield-enhancing products called Escalate\u00c2\u00ae yield enhancement system. Escalate comes standard on all Beck\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s corn, soybean, wheat and alfalfa products.<\/p>\n<p>Beck\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dedication and passion for agriculture extends far beyond Beck\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Hybrids. He has played an integral role in leading several agricultural organizations, providing each with a unique leadership approach, ultimately guiding them to newer heights.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NAMA is pleased to announce\u00c2\u00a0 Sonny Beck, president, Beck\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Hybrids, as the 2014 Agribusiness Leader of the Year. This award, which is NAMA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s highest honor, will be presented at the Opening General Session of the 2014 Agri-Marketing Conference, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A Fresh Perspective,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d April 10, 2014, in Jacksonville, Florida. The award honors outstanding leaders in agribusiness, education, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,36,279],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agri-marketing-conf","category-general","category-professional-awards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8370"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8379,"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8370\/revisions\/8379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}