MARKETING NEWS.

The seed division of Land O'Lakes, Arden Hills, Minn., announces it will acquire the Hytest crop brand from AgriBioTech, Inc., Henderson, Nev. Hytest will join the Land O'Lakes Croplan Genetics brand. The Hytest brand includes seed corn, soybeans, grain sorghum, wheat, alfalfa and other forage products. Land O'Lakes also will obtain a distribution facility in Sioux Falls, S.D., as part of the acquisition.

AGCO Corp., Duluth, Ga., enters into a joint venture agreement with SAME Deutz-Fahr SpA to distribute SAME Deutz-Fahr products in the United States and Canada. Under the agreement, AGCO will acquire 50 percent of the available shares in SAME Deutz-Fahr North America, Inc., and will have equal representation on the board of directors of the company.

Aventis CropScience, Lyon, France, has reached an agreement for the sale of its two herbicide active ingredients, carbetamide and dimefuron, to German ag chem manufacturer Feinchemie Schwebda, Eschwege. This divestment is the first step in a process which aims to simplify the Aventis CropScience product portfolio and to focus on its new, more profitable products.

Monsanto Co., St. Louis, has announced that it will provide royalty-free licenses for all of its technologies that can help further development of "golden rice" and other pro-vitamin-A-enhanced rice varieties. The company has also announced the recent launch of a new Web site, www.rice-research.org, opening its rice genome sequence database to researchers around the world.

A jury in U.S. District Court has unanimously found that Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. materially breached a 1993 contract licensing Monsanto's gene technology used in YieldGard insect-protected corn. The two companies have agreed that Pioneer's future sales of YieldGard corn will be subject to a royalty paid to Monsanto. No damages were awarded to Monsanto. Pioneer plans to immediately appeal the verdict.

The J.R. Simplot Company, Boise, Idaho, has finalized the purchase of turfgrass seed and specialty distribution assets from AgriBioTech, Inc., Henderson, Nev. Terms of Simplot's transaction include the production and marketing rights for a number of industry-leading turfgrass seed varieties, various international production contracts as well as ownership of several distribution locations.

AMVAC Chemical Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of American Vanguard Corp., has acquired the exclusive U.S. marketing rights to the Aztec 4.67% granular corn soil insecticide business from Bayer Corp. AMVAC will market the Aztec 4.67% granular insecticide formulation through the patented SmartBox delivery system, and Bayer will continue to market Aztec 2.1% G formulation to growers in the U.S. corn soil insecticide market.

Trimble, Sunnyvale, Calif., has aligned its resources to focus on four strategic growth markets -- Engineering and Construction; Agriculture; Fleet and Asset Management; and Component Technologies. Ron C. Hyatt, former group vice president of Trimble's PPG, has been appointed vice president and general manager of the agriculture division.

Aim herbicide, manufactured by FMC Corp., Philadelphia, receives approval for use on sweet corn for processing, grain sorghum, rice, barley and oats. Aim has previously been labeled for postemergence weed control in field corn, popcorn, corn silage, wheat, fallow ground and burndown prior to conservation tillage planting of corn, wheat or soybeans.

Ralcorp Holdings, Inc., St. Louis, and Agribrands International, Inc., St. Louis, have entered into a definitive agreement to combine in a merger-of-equals transaction. The merger will create a company that has approximately $2.3 billion in sales and the substantial cash flows and borrowing capacity needed to accelerate Ralcorp's growth in private-label foods. The agreement has been unanimously approved by both companies' boards of directors upon the recommendation of committees of independent members of both boards. The transaction is expected to close in early 2001.

MetaMorphix, Inc., Baltimore, completes its acquisition of certain animal health assets of BioStar, Inc., Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, encompassing that company's R&D facilities, staff and intellectual property. The four development-stage vaccine products acquired in the transaction are Clean, NeuterVax, Ovamax and IMS Cattle.

Eco Soil Systems Inc., Rancho Bernardo, Calif., completes the sale of substantially all of the assets of its Turf Partners subsidiary to The J.R. Simplot Company, Boise, Idaho. In addition to closing the sale, Eco Soil and Simplot entered into two distribution and supply agreements.