Win ,Win ,Win
First, this adage was borrowed from the phrase of our times, "hey.....it's a win-win situation". Well, I've been in on a few of those & it seems there should've been one more "win" or "lose" included-but anyway.
Here's the deal. Someone wants to sell me a product-we're going to deal w/corn or bean seed now. Instead of providing me with 10,000 plots of how it performed everywhere else but my farm, let's just "try it" on our farm. Mr. salesman-you say your product will make me $X per acre more than what I'm already using-or even a competitors product. You KNOW it will, you're trying to convince me that it will. Here's what we'll do Mr. Salesman. This will also subject his product to the "luck" that we usually are faced with in real day to day life.
I'll pick the field-OUR field. You will agree to site or no-go. If it's 40, or 80, or 160 A, so be it.
We'll flip a coin to see WHO gets WHICH side of field. We'll pay FMV for his product-including discounts-we're not asking for free nothing-don't expect to overpay either. Don't forget, we have quite a few other acres needing SOME seed from someone.
Salesman will pick his product, & I'll agree. I'll pick our product and he'll agree. Like amounts will be utilized. If field needs 100 units-he'll provide 50. Also-an LSD will be agreed upon. In other words, it will take something like 1 bu of beans or 3 bu of corn to declare winner.
Salesman will dictate planting instructions & I'll agree-both products will be planted to their recommendations. This includes herbicides etc. Seed will be taken from independent source (not the back of his new Ford Denali)
IF-IF the salesman's product beats our supplied product, I'll promise to buy at least that much again next yr.
IF salesman's product loses $$/A to us (don't care if it figures bushels or moisture) in whatever form, he'll get out the checkbook then & there & pay the difference on those acres his product appeared upon. He'll make up what we lost.
Finally-all results will be posted on current popular website (this was written last yr when NewAgTalk wasn't in existence).
That's it-it's done. Not fair you say? I say wrong. I'm not the one making the claims saying product XYZ is better than my traditional ABC. I'm tired of being testing bed followed by explanations like, "not really sure what happened on your farm Ron, it DID work EVERYwhere else...". Don't care anymore. If salesman's product wins-he'll benefit the following year, and theoretically so should I. However, he should realize that now HIS competitor may step back in line & be ready again. I won't have to hear about how it got in wrong part of field or anything. I also won't have to explain to landlord "why" we chose this particular product.
Guarantees? There always guarantees. You deliver me something, I guarantee that I'll pay for it-it keeps going from there. This program is pretty plain & simple. If you think you can win-then enter. If you fear losing-then stay the hell away. To date-absolutely NO ONE has entered. Maybe '01 will be different. Von-you're free to run w/the program also. Ron