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Colin Steen - CEO of Legacy Agripartners - Pushing Farming Forward
Colin Steen is CEO of Legacy Agripartners. He has had a lifelong career in agriculture, spending over 25 years with Syngenta in a variety of commercial leadership and Venture Capital roles before joining Legacy Seed Companies (now Legacy Agripartners) in July 2020. His prior experience in running Golden Harvest Seeds has given him a deep understanding of the needs of the U.S. farmer. Colin grew up on a grain and cattle farm in Weldon, Saskatchewan, and holds a B.S. in Agriculture from the University of Saskatchewan and an MBA from the University of Guelph.
"So we're a holding company with three distinct companies as part of that holding company. So we've got Legacy Seeds in Wisconsin that's got its roots in breeding alfalfa. Alfalfa is an incredibly important global crop for cattle feed, for dairy feed. And so it's a perennial that you plant, and it grows in the soil for four years. It fixes its own nitrogen. So it's a great crop for sustainability purposes in US and global agriculture. So we have a breeding program in that we've got DF Seeds in Michigan, which has been around since the early sixties, and a lot of history there.
And it focuses mostly on non-genetically modified soybeans that are food-grade. So they have a clear hilum. They have a clear seed coat. They are exported to Asia, so for tofu, soy milk, and things like that. So the core of that business is a little more food-focused. That team is very focused on the export customer, making sure the farmers have a good relationship with us and with their contractors to go overseas. And then we just acquired a third business, TriCal Superior Forage, and this is a triticale breeding business. And triticale is a cross of wheat and rye grass. It's been around for 40 or 50 years. It's been around for a long, long time, but we have one of the only breeding programs globally in that crop. And again, a great story from a sustainability standpoint. It's a cover crop. You plant it in the fall after your corn has been harvested and then it gets established about this high off the ground, and then it goes dormant as it heads into the winter. And then it grows up in the spring. And in some parts of the US, they turn their cattle out to graze on that crop.In other parts, they chop it for forage and put it in a pile for feeding throughout the year."
https://legacyagripartners.com
Business & Society is a 10-episode limited series co-hosted by Bruce Piasecki & Mia Funk
www.oneplanetpodcast.org
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By Limited Series - One Planet PodcastColin Steen is CEO of Legacy Agripartners. He has had a lifelong career in agriculture, spending over 25 years with Syngenta in a variety of commercial leadership and Venture Capital roles before joining Legacy Seed Companies (now Legacy Agripartners) in July 2020. His prior experience in running Golden Harvest Seeds has given him a deep understanding of the needs of the U.S. farmer. Colin grew up on a grain and cattle farm in Weldon, Saskatchewan, and holds a B.S. in Agriculture from the University of Saskatchewan and an MBA from the University of Guelph.
"So we're a holding company with three distinct companies as part of that holding company. So we've got Legacy Seeds in Wisconsin that's got its roots in breeding alfalfa. Alfalfa is an incredibly important global crop for cattle feed, for dairy feed. And so it's a perennial that you plant, and it grows in the soil for four years. It fixes its own nitrogen. So it's a great crop for sustainability purposes in US and global agriculture. So we have a breeding program in that we've got DF Seeds in Michigan, which has been around since the early sixties, and a lot of history there.
And it focuses mostly on non-genetically modified soybeans that are food-grade. So they have a clear hilum. They have a clear seed coat. They are exported to Asia, so for tofu, soy milk, and things like that. So the core of that business is a little more food-focused. That team is very focused on the export customer, making sure the farmers have a good relationship with us and with their contractors to go overseas. And then we just acquired a third business, TriCal Superior Forage, and this is a triticale breeding business. And triticale is a cross of wheat and rye grass. It's been around for 40 or 50 years. It's been around for a long, long time, but we have one of the only breeding programs globally in that crop. And again, a great story from a sustainability standpoint. It's a cover crop. You plant it in the fall after your corn has been harvested and then it gets established about this high off the ground, and then it goes dormant as it heads into the winter. And then it grows up in the spring. And in some parts of the US, they turn their cattle out to graze on that crop.In other parts, they chop it for forage and put it in a pile for feeding throughout the year."
https://legacyagripartners.com
Business & Society is a 10-episode limited series co-hosted by Bruce Piasecki & Mia Funk
www.oneplanetpodcast.org