Monument Circle Acquisition Corp (MON)

[Democritus_of_Abdera]

Pioneer Soybean Yield Advantage...

Pioneer has a press release dated Nov 23, 2009 that states:

... Pioneer® brand soybeans with the original Roundup Ready® gene have on average a 2.7 bushel per acre yield advantage against varieties from competitors with the new Roundup Ready 2 Yield® technology. The comparisons also show that Pioneer soybean varieties have a 2.8 bu/ac yield advantage over Asgrow varieties with the Roundup Ready 2 Yield® technology. see: http://www.pioneer.com/web/site/portal/menuitem.4a2b76082ea35321e6a4e6a4d10093a0/

During Monsanto’s Biennial Event, a yield disadvantage such as this was foreshadowed by several defensive comments, such as the following in Brett Begeman’s presentation:

But next year as Ted pointed out, we will have the class of 10 with another 15 varieties that we can sell, 70% of that supply made up of class of 10 varieties with the opportunity to get multiple varieties on those farms. There is no doubt in my mind that farmers are going to have a great experience with Roundup Ready 2 Yield and that is not to minimize the unfortunate consequences, some of them not experiencing that this year. But that’s normal when you’re selling yield, and that’s the difference with Roundup Ready 2 Yield. It’s not bug and weed control. You don’t get the yield results every year like you get bug and weed control results every year and I thought Ted laid that out very clearly, but you don’t stop...

...Roundup Ready 2 Yield makes sense. Does it meet what we’re hoping our farmers will experience? Well, no, but it’s still a positive return for farmers because of the significant yield increase....

...And as I look at how our orders are going for our soybean business as I commented on corn, I feel good. Our customers are having a rough year. It’s not been good for harvest, but they’re doing well and they’re ordering their seed. And we feel good about where those orders stack up....

Looking to the future, Monsanto points out that Roundup Ready 2 will be integrated into 150 hybrid varieties in 2010 (up from 15 in 2009) and into 1500 varieties in 2011. The increased number of varieties increases the chances for a yield advantage. In fact, Ted Crosbie claimed during the Biennial Event “that the Roundup Ready 2 advantage from the Class of ‘10 is in that four to five bushel yield advantage.” Albeit, I’m not exactly sure what it is being compared to. Pioneer, however, is also ramping up its varieties with an additional 26 new soybean varieties to be added in 2010.

And, Monsanto plans to make the Roundup Ready 2 Yield platform a multi-stacked soybean platform, adding the Dicamba product, the Omega-3 product, and the Vistive III product.