The agricultural landscape is increasingly competitive. With more than 1,200 companies with biological products on the market and many more in development, according to the 2023 Mixing Bowl Biologicals Landscape, companies must move quickly to get into the game. But how can you move quickly if you miss a season? Counter season performance trials add data sets to optimize the development process.
Product Development Plan
Design a product development testing plan in line with the evaluation stage. To minimize risks, avoid skipping stage-gate stages. Jumping from the lab to the farmer field can erode trust, especially if the farmer experience is less than expected. Ensure testing size (number of sites, plot dimension and treatment design) is above minimum required to generate statistically robust results. Additionally, consistency with the trial implementation supervision team helps continuity of protocol execution and analysis for insights.
Incorporating counter season programming into a stage gate development process is critical for startup and established companies interested in rapidly proving the value of a new technology. Counter season trials accelerate the generation of product efficacy data by validating the product value across a wider range of environments. This also can be a step toward future market access in new geographies.
Careful planning and relentless implementation ensure continuous progress and consistent data from counter season trials.
The maps highlight the correlation between soil types and weather patterns across both Midwest US and Argentina. This type of information is used to align target environments in the US with those in Argentina.
A deep understanding of the product use is required to find the proper evaluation environments that will generate replicated data within the target range. Testing with similar environmental variables generates meaningful results and insights for positioning.
Key opportunities from counter season testing
- Validate efficacy before investing in broad field evaluations. The early development step increases effectiveness of field testing as the product moves from greenhouse and small plot evaluations to the later broader development stage.
- Evaluate candidate formulations or sort potential events for the next season testing.
- Adjust or refine product use recommendations across multiple crops.
- Start regulatory process for product registration in new geographic markets.
- Reach potential new commercial partners in pre-commercial stages.
At AgriThority®, we start with a deep understanding of the company, the product and the goal. We review the client’s plan and recommend the most appropriate testing approach, even if our suggestion differs from the client’s original ideas.
We integrate the information generated with our experienced local network before selecting the geography and the most appropriate research location for each project. Our decades of collected knowledge helps validate what works best where. The deep experience with both synthetic chemistries and all segments of biologicals helps with protocol evaluation criteria and competitive comparisons. These comparisons go beyond “standard practices” to determine best practices for new technologies to become practical, productive and profitable to the farmers.
We have developed proprietary testing protocols based on state-of-the-art tools to ensure an objective assessment of product performance, avoiding anecdotal or subjective results. Our information and reports are aimed at providing a “seal of quality assurance” for the product performance.
When your new innovation is ready for development, turn to AgriThority® for the strategic and scientific development expertise that can make the difference between a great idea and a breakthrough. Our global footprint, combined with our deep understanding of market and producer dynamics, helps move your innovation from the laboratory to market.