Tyson Walters is a man of many hats. In addition to his roles as a Procurement Manager at Syngenta and fourth generation -farmer, he would tell you that he’s most proud to be a self-proclaimed “decent dad.”
A key to Tyson’s longstanding career is building relationships with growers, which is backed by decades of experience in learning what does and doesn’t work for their operation. Using insights from countless conversations, he has been at the forefront of crafting incentives that encourage growers to adopt sustainable practices - efforts that have led to positive outcomes in soil and water sustainability across North America. Since Tyson’s tenure with the Seeds Procurement team in 2021, the number of corn acres in North America seed corn enrolled in their sustainability program has increased from around 40 to 70 percent, leading them to set their sights on hitting the 80 percent mark within a year.
Standing behind the company’s mission to deliver seed innovations is a natural one, given Tyson’s dual hats as a farmer and Syngenta customer. After obtaining his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Crop Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, he returned to his family’s 850-acre corn and soybean family farm in Central Illinois, which he co-manages with his brother. Under their leadership, the farm has evolved into a training ground for many experiments, successes, failures, and now lessons that he shares with growers and agronomists. Eventually, the farm began to represent something bigger to Tyson, and mainly, a generational opportunity to leave things a little bit better than he found them. “I started thinking about sustainability while planting corn one day with my son,” he said. “The farm was something my dad was passing on to me, and one of these days, I’m going to want to hand it to my son. It showed me that I’m not the true owner of the land but a steward of it.”
His drive to pass on a healthy operation led him to adopt a series of sustainable practices, such as incorporating cover crops, adopting no-till, integrating livestock, and using newer technologies, such as biologicals in his family’s operation – decisions that increased yields and biodiversity, and healthier soil over time. “There’s something about seeing positive changes from things that were once nuance or told would never work,” he said. “For many years, the status quo was that you had to till the soil. So, seeing yields increase, and organic matter and nutrients going in the right place while using no-till and other sustainable practices has been exciting.”
In the future, Tyson hopes that more growers will become profitable using sustainable practices and avoid a few hiccups he’s made in his farming journey - like the time he terminated his cover crops too late. “I’m just glad I can help growers every day. Knowing that I played a small role in helping them leave something for future generations is a legacy I’ll be proud of.”
Collapse >>