Meristem Crop Performance adds Midwest staff

Meristem Crop Performance has added two Indiana-based account managers.

Cody Stevens of Pendleton, Indiana, and Jediah French of Leopold, Indiana, will market Meristem’s crop inputs to farmers in Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan.

Stevens grew up on a family farm near Pendleton, raising corn, soybeans and wheat, as well as showing cattle and pigs in 4-H and FFA. Hired by telecommunications company GTE three weeks before his high school graduation, Stevens then began a 23-year career in that field as a sales and service technician, including Verizon, and Frontier. “I’ve always loved farming, but the farm couldn’t support all of us,” he said in a news release. “I had to get a real job off the farm.”

Before joining Meristem, French spent nearly six years as territory manager for Corteva Agriscience where he worked in sales, account management and coaching others. Earlier, French spent six years with Winfield Seed as a district sales manager. He earned a degree in agriculture from Purdue University.

After French’s father died when he was four years old, he says his mother was determined to “keep me busy and out of trouble.” She made sure he was active in 4-H and FFA, where he became interested in agriculture. French had his FFA projects, competed in the sales demonstration competitions, several judging contests and served as a chapter president, which led him to Purdue studying agriculture.

French serves on the county Farm Bureau board, is president of Perry County Cattlemen and on the Perry County FFA Advisory board. Along with his passion for his family is a drive to help farmers make the most of every crop they plant and every acre they farm.

“We’re really grateful to have signed up these two talented professionals to help us carry out our mission of creating real productivity for farmers,” Mitch Eviston, Meristem’s founder and CEO, said in the release. “I’m very happy to turn these professionals loose to serve farmers with our growing portfolio of high-quality products.”

Based in Columbus, Ohio, Meristem is one of the fastest-growing crop input supplier companies in America, according to the release. Meristem sources, formulates, licenses and distributes crop inputs to farmers so farm businesses can make the most of their infrastructure and intellectual property investments and better compete in the global agricultural marketplace, according to the release.