Thomas Terral’s company is helping Southern farmers decrease their dependency on cotton and working to make an even bigger difference.

If you know anything about crop production in the US, you know that corn is generally grown in Midwestern states like Illinois and Iowa, while the Southern states’ main crop is cotton. Along with the rest of the world, that is changing, and Terral Seed, Inc. in Lake Providence, La. is supporting Southern farmers as they increase acreage in crops such as wheat, corn, grain, sorghum, and soybeans.

The company began just after WWII as a farm supply company by Thomas Terral’s father. Terral joined the company right out of school in 1965, traveling throughout Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi selling seed to dealers. About 15 years ago, under Terral’s leadership, the company became involved with genetic seed modification and hired scientists to develop a sophisticated R&D program.

Today, Terral is CEO of the $50 million company, and it’s in fast-growth mode thanks to an increased demand by farmers for grain seeds specifically developed for Southern climates. Corn, in particular, is popular due to increased US ethanol production. Terral said while most seed-corn developers concentrate on strains for Northern states, his company has spent the last 15 years creating high yielding seeds that carry the biotechnology traits Southern farmers need.

Thomas Terral

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Terral attributes much of the company’s success to maintaining a small-business culture even during growth periods and staying focused on customer relationships. Those customers come in two varieties: the retailers that supply seed to farmers and the farmers themselves.

“Our strategy in the past four to five years has been to have an increased amount of contact with the key growers, who actually use the product, while maintaining the same distribution system we’ve always had,” said Terral. He noted that there are about 600 key producers in the Mid-South. “We try to have a personal relationship with at least 50% of those.” Of the company’s 68 employees, 10 are in R&D, 22 are in plant production/warehousing, and the rest are in administration and sales.

Terral said the company’s close relationships with farmers enable his sales team to direct each producer to the exact type of seed that will perform best for them. “Their soil type, whether the field is irrigated or not—all of those factors enable them to capture the most value from a particular product,” he said. “Developing close relationships across the areas we service is what brings value to those customers and the reason they come back for more of our product.”

Relationships are also essential to the company’s culture, Terral said. “From the PhDs that develop the genetics through the sales and marketing organization to the plant production guys and truck drivers, we have a positive attitude of providing value throughout the system.”

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In an effort to provide even better service to customers, Terral invested in an RFID system to help his production team with inventory and his sales team with product availability information. Over the next few months, Terral Seed’s warehouse system will be upgraded to include RFID, which Terral said will provide he and his executive team with real-time inventory updates.

“Every square foot in the warehouses will be identified, and that information will be instantly available to the inventory and sales system,” said Terral. “That means there will be less room for human error in the loading of trucks and getting the right materials out. Also, our sales people will know exact inventory levels when talking with customers.”

Terral noted that although setting up the system is a large project, it’s not any different from other projects the company has undertaken. “Like anything else, the major factor in getting a good job done is knowing exactly what your goals are and communicating that with your facilitator,” he said.

That methodology is likely to stand Terral and his team in good stead as they look to the future, which Terral said includes exciting seed traits such as adding Omega 3 into soybeans so the salad oils made from them will be more heart healthy.

“With the traits we have in the products today, our producers are using hundreds of tons less pesticides than they had to use 10 years ago—making the crops friendlier to the producer and the environment. As we move forward, we’ll have even more traits that benefit society as a whole.”