BASF has agreed to acquire significant parts of Bayer’s seed and non-selective herbicide businesses for $7 billion, part of a move by Bayer to divest assets in anticipation of its acquisition of Monsanto. The assets include Bayer’s non-selective herbicide business, commercialized under the Liberty, Basta and Finale brands, as well as its seed businesses for key row crops in select markets.

“We are taking an active approach to address potential regulatory concerns, with the goal of facilitating a successful close of the Monsanto transaction,” explained Werner Baumann, chairman of the board of management of Bayer.

The assets to be sold include Bayer’s global glufosinate-ammonium business and the related LibertyLink technology for herbicide tolerance, essentially all of the company’s field crop seeds businesses, as well as respective research and development capabilities.

The seeds businesses being divested include the global cotton seed business (excluding India and South Africa), the North American and European canola seed businesses and the soybean seed business.

IN OTHER NO-TILL NEWS…

• A new partnership between AGCO and The Climate Corporation will provide AGCO customers the option to connect with the Climate FieldView platform. Users will be able to connect to the Climate FieldView platform through FieldView Drive device, AGCO’s Precision Planting 20/20 SeedSense Display or through application program interfaces (APIs) beginning late 2017.
• Needham Ag has a new flexible urethane V8 firming wheel that installs on John Deere single-disc drills and air seeders and the Case IH SDX air seeder. This tire is designed to extend service life…