Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88Between Turnrows • 63 be involved. I had no idea that there were that many seeds out there that just had this genetic number and were waiting for someone to find them and make them into something profitable.” Armor Seed Sales Director Jimmy Wray says, “I first started in the seed business because I knew that the genetics were there to beat the large ag compa- nies where I was from in Kentucky and Western Tennessee.” Jimmy was advised to find an established seed company to join because Monsanto was no longer granting licenses. “Within twenty-four hours I had received calls from the presidents of six regional seed companies in the Midwest. I was overwhelmed! I was also put in touch with Kelly. We hit it off from our first conversation. I did due diligence with all these companies, but one thing that I did know was that it was a lot easier to bring genet- ics up from the south to Kentucky and Tennessee than it is to try and bring genetics down from the Midwest because the disease pressures and soil types were much more similar. That’s why I partnered with Armor.” A license from Monsanto had not been easy for Armor Seed to acquire. Monsanto’s Mike Lewis says, “When we first started offering these licenses, we would give one to just about any company that asked, but by 2000 we weren’t giving out hardly any at all.” Kelly had made repeated trips to Monsanto Headquarters in St. Louis to try and obtain a license for Armor, but to no avail. Armor Seed had been working under a third-party partner to license genetics. In 2007, Armor was finally granted a technology license from Monsanto. As the new company began to grow, the owners placed special emphasis on hiring the right people for the job. Kelly says, “Our growth would not have happened if not for the people we were able to partner with and hire over that time. We have the best set of employees for our business model that any company could have.” The Armor management team uses great care in the selection of every employee the com- Jimmy Wray showing a field of 47-R33 soybeans in western Kentucky.