Lagging sales of Monsanto’s new SmartStax corn hybrids and Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybean varieties have led the company to lower some seed prices as second quarter earnings dropped 19%.

Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant recently told Wall Street analysts that “penetration pricing” was his top priority. Monsanto announced that sales of SmartStax, which has eight biotech traits, reached 3 million acres, or 1 million short of the company’s forecast.

Sales of the Roundup Ready 2 Yield varieties hit 6 million acres, well short of the company’s projection of 8 to 10 million acres.

Monsanto has also been facing competition from lower-priced generic glyphosate. These issues caused the company to abandon its goal of doubling gross profit between 2007 and 2012.

Meanwhile, Syngenta said its first-quarter sales dropped 3% to $3.5 billion. Sales of Syngenta’s crop protection products comprise more than 66% of all of the company’s sales. Seed sales fell 2% and volume dropped 6%.

IN OTHER NO-TILL NEWS

Bayer CropScience received EPA registration for its new Poncho/Votivo corn seed treatment. The treatment includes bacteria that colonize corn roots once they germinate, creating a biological barrier nematodes can’t break through.

 Syngenta Seed has received deregulation from the USDA for the Agrisure Viptera insect control trait. The Agrisure Viptera trait will be combined with the Agrisure 3000GT trait stack to form the new Agrisure Viptera 3111 trait stack.

 Agro-Culture Liquid Fertilizers will build its flagship manufacturing and distribution facility in Ashley, Mich. The 50,400-square-foot facility will be the company’s largest. Fertilizer…