Sonny Beck, president of Beck's Hybrids, has been named the 2014 Agribusiness Leader of the Year by the National Agri-Marketing Assn.
This award, which is NAMA's highest honor, was presented at the 2014 Agri-Marketing Conference April 10 in Jacksonville, Fla. The award honors outstanding leaders in agribusiness, education, government service or other agribusiness related areas who exemplify excellence in agribusiness by their significant contributions to the industry.
As president of Beck's Hybrids, Beck, has led the company to unprecedented growth. As the largest family owned seed company in the United States, Beck's Hybrids is now the sixth-largest seed company in the U.S. Under Sonny's leadership, Beck's Hybrids has experienced a 20-percent increase in sales each year for the last 20 years, doubling in size every four years.
As soon as Beck joined the family operation in 1964, after graduating from Purdue University, he never let grass grow under his feet. Always aiming at building closer, stronger relationships with customers, Beck immediately launched a couple of customer events that are now long-standing traditions.
It was in that same year, Beck started what is now called the Practical Farm Research (PFR) program. Still today, the PFR program is unlike any other in the seed industry. Focused on farmer's needs, hundreds of studies are completed at five Beck's locations in an effort to look at how different management practices perform in different environments. The information is delivered to farmers across the Midwest in a 280-page summary book, website and field shows
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