Horizon Ag has hired industry veteran Hugh Beckham as director of sales and marketing.
Beckham, whose career includes sales leadership and management with DuPont Pioneer, Monsanto and SF Services, brings more than 25 years of experience in the Southern seed business. In addition, he is currently president of the Southern Seed Association.
“I look forward to him playing an important role as Horizon Ag enters into an exciting time of growth opportunities for our business, retail partners and customers,” says Tim Walker, Horizon Ag general manager.
Beckham will be at the forefront of developing the company’s sales team and delivering programs to help its retail partners be more successful. Horizon Ag recently adopted a new wholesale business model that will enable it to work more closely with the retail chain as it brings new products to the U.S. rice industry
“The retail partners in this new model will be very important to our long-term success, and I look forward to fostering those relationships,” Beckham says. “Our portfolio of seed varieties and weed control technologies will continue to provide rice producers excellent options for improving their yields and quality.”
Beckham also will play a lead role as Horizon Ag introduces the Provisia Rice System, developed by BASF. The first Provisia rice variety from Horizon Ag will be available for the 2018 season, joining Horizon Ag’s Clearfield rice varieties.
The Provisia Rice System involves varieties bred to tolerate Provisia Herbicide, a quizalofop from BASF. PVL01, the first variety developed by the Louisiana State University AgCenter, will be showcased at Horizon Ag’s field day, June 27, in Kaplan, La.
With a different mode of action than the ALS family, Provisia offers control of a broad range of grass weeds, including weedy rice, red rice and ALS-resistant grasses. Provisia belongs to the ACCase inhibitor chemical class.