Bayer works to ensure a strong, profitable future for Canada’s ag industry

A year into the job as head of Bayer Crop Science Canada, Antoine Bernet reflects on what he’s seen and what farmers can expect in the years to come.

By Clare Stanfield

There are days when farming seems like the best job in the world — sunny days at seeding and harvest, the smell of rain, seeing a beautiful crop auger into the bin, stopping for a meal in the field with the kids … it’s a great way to make a living, to live a life.

But farming has its challenges, too, and Antoine Bernet is working at ways to address them not for farmers, but with them.

“Farmers know their work best and have been evolving the way they cultivate and grow on the land for centuries,” says Bernet, who was appointed as country division head (CDH) for Bayer Crop Science Canada in August 2023. “But there are so many decisions that need to be made for a crop to be successful, from determining what to seed and when, which crop protection products work best in a changing climate, how much product to use and more.”

He says that Bayer is fully focused on helping Canadian farmers farm better, be more profitable and be better equipped to meet the environmental and agronomic challenges they may face.

Farmer driven

Prior to taking on the role of Crop Science CDH in Canada, Bernet was CDH for Poland, Baltics, Czech Republic and Slovakia — nations with crop profiles not too dissimilar to Canada.

While he’s held a number of leadership roles in the company since joining the Crop Science division in 2005, it’s significant that Bernet began his career with Bayer as a sales representative. There is no better place to fully understand the power and deep knowledge that resides in farmers’ collective experiences and observations than meeting farmers in their fields and talking to them about their actual needs.

To that end, Bayer is transforming how it works with farmers to put their interests front and centre. “Shortly after I started in this role, we began preparing for a new operating model that helps us be laser focused on helping farmers succeed,” he says, adding that the new customer-facing model in Canada “went live” in September this year.

Cross-functional teams, or squads, are grouped into five regional units across Canada and are given greater autonomy to respond to local needs with customized solutions. “Our squads and units are purposely set up to understand the unique challenges of each region so we can respond more quickly to the needs of farmers and partners now, plus identify opportunities and innovations for the future,” says Bernet.

“This new model empowers teams to help farmers maximize their success by focusing on quick, local decision-making,” he says, adding that this system also enhances Bayer’s ability to work with industry partners to co-create the best solutions for the local marketplace.

Technology to meet the future

Crop protection products continue to evolve, but Bernet says Bayer’s focus on crop technology — plant genetics and traits — is a major focus to help farmers be more profitable.

A recent example of this is found in the new DEKALB canola hybrids, which now all come with straight cut capability and clubroot resistance. “All new canola hybrids are getting our pod shatter trait, and we’re bringing in new sources and combinations of clubroot and blackleg resistance,” he says. “We’re looking to bring consistency and yield to regions that typically struggle with canola production.” This includes an effort to bring more dual trait (Roundup Ready and LibertyLink trait technology) hybrids to market so that farmers have the weed control flexibility they’ve been asking for.

It’s part of Bayer’s overall effort to include bio-economic indicators in plant breeding. “As part of the continual evolution of our plant breeding pipeline, we’re using customer-informed selection indices that are helping us select seed products that optimize on-farm profitability,” says Bernet. In other words, Bayer is listening to what farmers say they need in a canola hybrid or corn hybrid or soybean variety — such as greater drought tolerance or earlier maturity — then ensuring those needs are included in the breeding effort.

“Yes, profitability relies heavily on yield,” he says. “But we also consider all regional challenges that can impact profit, such as diseases, lodging, quality traits and so on. We want to ensure the seed products we bring to farmers have the right balance of yield potential and risk management to optimize the best possible outcome on their farms.”

Farmers environmental challenges

Seed and trait development is but one avenue for scientific advancement; keeping farmers profitable in a rapidly changing world is another. Bernet says that Bayer is focused on finding practical solutions.

“I think the biggest challenges facing Canadian farmers are warmer, drier conditions that bring increased moisture constraints and extreme weather, weed resistance issues that threaten farmers’ ability to grow crops in zero- and low-tillage systems, and being environmentally sustainable as government regulations and carbon initiatives continue to evolve.”

Bernet says Bayer’s development efforts focus on three main areas: digital tools, seed and trait products and crop protection advances.

There is a continual effort to improve the digital tools in FieldView so that farmers can get a clearer, more granular picture of their land and the impact of every crop, chemical and management choice they make on that land. He cites a sclerotinia stem rot pilot project as one example of this work.

“Bayer Canada is piloting a ground-breaking digital tool through our FieldView platform that uses predictive modelling to help farmers make better use of fungicide,” says Bernet. “This kind of predictive technology is very innovative and could benefit farmers in a lot of ways, like targeting crop protection products with greater accuracy and better efficiency.”

The company is exploring options that may help stabilize yield in more extreme environmental conditions, address various diseases and pests, and that thrive in a changing environment.

Bernet points to Bayer’s work with short-stature corn, which has launched in the U.S. and is now going through the Canadian regulatory process. “Shorter, stronger stalks are less likely to break or fall over in high winds,” he says, adding that these shorter hybrids allow standard farm equipment to get into the crop later in the season, say for fungicide application, without sacrificing overall feed and grain quantity and quality.

Bayer continues to work on new crop protection products with an eye to future challenges. “Right now, for example, there are no documented cases of glyphosate-resistant wild oats in Canada, but there are in Australia, where the traditional practice is to use glyphosate alone rather than multiple modes of action,” says Bernet, and adds that there are very good predictive models indicating that the risk of glyphosate-resistant wild oats in this country is significant.

“That’s where Bayer comes in,” he says. “We’re developing new crop protection products before this becomes (a widespread issue) while we continue to encourage farmers to use multiple modes of action to help slow weed resistance.”

Thinking bigger

Bayer takes its role as an industry leader seriously and knows that the company has a role to play building and supporting a healthy ag sector across Canada, says Bernet.

Among other things, that means supporting, encouraging and advocating for the farmers of the future. “We put a lot of effort and resources toward ensuring the next generation of farmers, agricultural leaders and workers in this industry have opportunities to learn and grow in a meaningful way,” says Bernet. “It’s why we support 4-H Canada, Ag in the Classroom, various universities, ag colleges and other initiatives that support food, farming and farmers.

“Our commitment to shaping the future of agriculture is not just about our products,” says Bernet. “It’s about ensuring a healthy and strong industry overall.”