Sean Nettleton

Regional Sales Agronomist & Sales Manager

Meet Sean Nettleton, our Regional Agronomist and Sales Manager.

Sean brings a wide variety of knowledge in the crop production industry through his educational and professional experiences that also drive the level of understanding he has for a grower’s many farm management decisions. Sean began his professional career working in ag retail and precision agriculture for eight years before moving into the seed industry. After working for one of the largest seed companies in the U.S. and as a crop insurance advisor for a local bank, Sean now takes his deep insight of crop and soil management and ties it back to help growers understand how, why and what BW Fusion products perform best in their field.

As a side hobby, Sean has always enjoyed helping his brother-in-law farm his row crop operation. This was also his introduction to the powerhouse products of BW Fusion and eventually led Sean to become one of the first BW Fusion dealers. Validating the product performance of what he was selling and understanding their positive impact on the soil and nutrient relationship with plants spurred him to go all-in. In 2020, Sean transitioned from a dealer to a full-time role on the Agronomy Team..

Though Sean has a passion for the agriculture industry, he wasn’t always known as your typical farm kid. Sean found his passion for agriculture while attending Southern Illinois University in the early 2000s. During that time, he discovered his area of expertise while working on an area farm during college: crop and soil health. In fact, Sean moved on to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in plant, soil & ag systems, and eventually a master’s degree in wheat science. Sean also became a Certified Crop Adviser for the state of Illinois.

If you ask him what his other hobbies are, Sean will probably tell you that work is his hobby because of the passion he carries for it. When he isn’t spending time with BW Fusion products and growers, he is in the shop helping farmers fix up their equipment. Sean and his wife, Sarah, keep busy with their three kids and enjoy raising chickens and gardening at their home in southeast Illinois.

Sean enjoys sharing quality agronomic conversations with others. You can find him on Twitter, or even on his very own YouTube page. Check out BW Fusion’s latest series “Digging-In” where Sean dives deeper into agronomic conversations.

How would you describe yourself as a "Leader In The Field"?

I’m not afraid to dive into a problem and solve it. We’re constantly thinking about new ways and solutions to help growers succeed by becoming the most efficient as they can be and to truly understand what is going on in their fields. I look forward to diving into each farmer’s data to understand their fields and provide useful recommendations, rather than just selling our products. My overall goal is to eventually change the mindset of how farming was practiced in the past, and understand BW Fusion’s opportunity to help growers become as efficient with the nutrients and soil they already have on their farms.

What does the BW Difference mean to you?

I think that’s our motto. It’s the people, the products and the proof. If it weren’t for the people who started BW Fusion, I probably wouldn’t have been here, and it’s the product performance that’s kept me all these years. We have the desire to constantly be learning more about our industry—to expand upon what we know right now and figure out where we still have areas to improve. BW Fusion is not based on just selling a product, it’s about unlocking your field’s full potential and making each and every field as efficient as it can be. Anyone can take a soil and tissue sample, but when you see those samples constantly throughout the growing season and see the nutrient trends and relationships, that’s where we stand out. The amount of power and value our program has is different from any other crop nutrition company out there. We prove why our products work, and we utilize soil and tissue samples to prove that out - and that’s how we’re different. If someone isn’t sure something works, we’re going through the data to understand why and prove how our products will help their operation become more efficient in the long haul.

Heading into the future, what does BW Fusion want to unlock for growers?

It’s not all about the high yields at harvest. It’s about understanding the efficiency of nutrition. We can do more with less product if we understand nutrient uptake and balance. I enjoy working with today’s growers because we will learn more about crop nutrition starting now and into the next few years than we have learned in the past couple of decades combined. No, we don’t have everything figured out yet, but we’re on the path to discovering it. Everything we do has a purpose. The things we’re understanding about what biology and plant nutrition brings to the table changes the way we feed our crops. The power of BW Fusion and Agronomy 365 helps us understand nutrient uptake, and will help us change the way we feed our crops into the future. We’re working just as hard as our growers are. We’ve got to do what’s right for the customer and the future of the agricultural industry.

What are the "Top Three Products: every grower should have in their farm plan?

MeltDown - No ifs, ands or buts. We are constantly learning something new about this product, and its capabilities EVERYDAY.
Environoc 401 - You HAVE to get this product in your lineup if you’ve got MeltDown applied. These two products work hand in hand.
The Next Product Down The Line - This is my third favorite product, but really it isn’t even a product, it’s our product development team. We’re going after it using the soil and tissue program, understanding the current trends and their responses, whether that is in plant structure or yield. We’re looking to streamline and make growers' lives easier to take their operation to the next level.

(BONUS) PiKSi Dust Plus - There are SO MANY structural benefits when you put this product to use.

How would you explain the value or importance of Agronomy 365 to BW Fusion growers?

BW Fusion could not be as successful as we are without the support from Agronomy 365. The Agronomy 365 Dashboardvalidates each and every one of our products and tells us if they are performing in the field or not. With Agronomy 365, we have the ability to look back on a complete year of data and see any trends in nutrient availability and the benefit of different management practices with the use of BW Fusion.