“Our purchase of Wickman Chemical reinforces our business strategy to bring the tools and innovation farmer-owners need to thrive,” said Matt Carstens, President & CEO of Landus and Conduit. “Erich and Tammy Wickman have built a tremendous operation that, like Landus, keeps the farmer in the center. We welcome their team and customers from across Iowa and Kansas to Landus and look forward to building upon the great reputation of service Erich and Tammy established.”

Wickman Chemical, founded by Erich and Tammy Wickman in 1998, started from humble beginnings on a dirt floor machine shed and grew into one of the region’s prominent agricultural chemical suppliers. The company’s focus on building relationships with farmers and providing personalized service makes its operation unique. Their team consists of professionals with agronomy, sales, accounting, and technology backgrounds, all dedicated to helping customers find the right chemicals for their farms.

“It’s taken a lot of hard work and many years to build this company alongside my wife Tammy, and we knew we didn’t want to sell our life’s work to just any company,” said Erich Wickman, Founder and CEO of Wickman Chemical. “When we met Matt Carstens and the Landus team, we could see this company shares our focus on making farmers more economically productive. They understand the importance of building relationships with and serving the unique needs of farmers, making Landus the best choice for our team and customers into the future.”

The purchase agreement will go into effect on October 1, 2024. Erich Wickman will remain with the company as a Chemical Marketing Specialist, while Tammy Wickman will exit to focus on family and the farm. Wickman Chemical employees will remain in their roles to continue providing premium service to farmers, only now as Landus employees. The company will experience no major operational changes other than Wickman Chemical customers having access to all services provided by Landus.

Landus is a forward-thinking agriculture solutions company that keeps the farmer at the center of every decision. We connect thousands of farmer-owners with the world through grain, agronomy, and distribution, deploying traditional and nontraditional methods fueled by innovation and sustainability. Our $3 billion business touches 34 states and 16 countries.

To learn more about Landus and the company’s commitment to solving critical issues for the farmer of tomorrow, please visit lands.ag.

While farmers are enjoying a profitable harvest, planning for the 2022 spring planting season will present some challenges, with skyrocketing input costs heading into the 2022 growing season caused by a chemical supply shortage.

Erich Wickman, along with his wife Tammy, own Wickman Chemical north of Atlantic.

Wickman says the problem began in 2020 when COVID 19 struck China. He says the virus hit during the Chinese New Year and shut down production in China at a critical juncture. The typical two-to-three-week layoff turned into a 12-to-18-week halt in production.

Wickman says besides the lost production time, COVID caused a labor shortage at the ports, warehouse houses are half staffed, people aren’t coming back to the workforce, and truckers are behind, which could carry well into 2022.

Wickman says if producers come out of panic mode and turn into a way of action will find costs per acre will go up a little, but not a lot.

Wickman says his job as a chemical dealer and advisor is to try and find alternative products. Wickman says another problem is producers are trying to buy chemicals meant to go to South America. While the U.S. is heading into winter, South America is going into summer.

Wickman suggests producers quit panicking and start thinking, go to their chemical suppliers’ meetings, figure out a logical plan and follow it. Wickman added this country relies on the Chinese to do so much for us, and the U.S. needs to become more self-reliant and manufacture chemicals in the United States as we used to.