USA - Summit View Ag teams up with Meristem Crop Performance

Date:08-23-2023

Nick Fries of Summit View Ag, Norwalk, Wisc. and Meristem Crop Performance Group, LLC, based in Columbus, Ohio, announced a new dealership agreement to serve farmers in Wisconsin.

Under the new relationship, the Fries Family and their business, Summit View Ag, will carry the Meristem Crop Performance product line and become Meristem’s ally in helping Wisconsin farmers make the most of every dollar they spend on crop inputs.

″The Fries Family is known in Wisconsin for providing a variety of services that help farmers he works with win more consistently, season after season,″ said Mitch Eviston, Meristem Founder and CEO, in announcing the agreement.  ″We’re excited to be able to come alongside to help them serve those farmers and also gain from their field experience as we add new products.″

Summit View Ag, operated by Nick and his parents Doug and Mary, provides a wide range of seed, crop nutrition, custom farming and land management services. Fries, says he’s looking forward to providing even more options to help farmers succeed. ″By adding Meristem Crop Performance, we will be able to further customize what we bring to every grower we serve and make the drive toward improving farmer ROI (return on investment) even more comprehensive,″ he said. ″In today’s world, a cookie-cutter approach to crop production does not maximize profitability.″

The Fries Family and Summit View Ag will now add the Meristem product portfolio including RACEREADY™ seed treatments, HOPPER THROTTLE™ planter box treatments, REVLINE^® biologicals and plant growth regulators, TRUTRACK^® drift control, AQUADRAFT^® water conditioners and surfactants, UPSHIFT^® starter fertilizers and HOMESTRETCH^® micronutrients and foliar nutritionals. Of special interest is EXCAVATOR^®, powered by MICROBILIZE™, a new biological designed to break down tough crop residue and release nutrients faster.

 Fries says they farm about 1,500 acres of their own at Summit View Ag and test all the products on their own fields before they offer them to others. His recent experience with several Meristem products, especially HOMESTRETCH^® HARVESTSHIELD™, brought him success that he wanted to share with other farmers.

″We first tried HARVESTSHIELD on our own farm when we had stressed soybeans from a neighbor’s dicamba application,″ says Fries.″We had crinkled beans and it was at a time when they were just beginning to flower — HARVESTSHIELD sure changed things. From herbicide damage like that, you would expect a yield loss, but they snapped back and we ended up getting well above our average for that field.″

″We are now telling our guys to put HARVESTSHIELD in with that second herbicide pass – we often have in-season weed issues in our area and run the risk of flower drop – you are negating that flower drop with the HARVESTSHIELD and it helps avoid that yield loss. We’ve seen a yield benefit anywhere from 5 to 10 bushel per acre on beans.″