FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Four Honored for Excellence
in Agricultural Technology

National Winner Named at Special Ceremony in Memphis

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (Dec. 6, 2002) - AgPRonline - Four full-service farm supply retail businesses were selected as CyberDealer Award regional winners in the United States for 2002. Out of those four, one national winner was honored at a special ceremony Dec. 5 as part of the Agricultural Retailers Association convention at The Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tenn. The winners are:

National	Co-op Country Partners	Baraboo, WI	aghost.net/e0026201/
Regional	Rolling Hills FS, Inc.	Winterset, IA	rollinghillsfs.com
Regional	Agland Coop	Oakland, NE	agridealer.com/oaklandaglandcoop
Regional	Western Farm Service	Tangent, OR	westernfarmservice.com

In its second year, the CyberDealer Awards, sponsored by Syngenta Crop Protection, Syngenta Seeds, and CyberDealer^TM Magazine, seek to honor full-service farm supply retailers that use e-business technology to better serve their customers and the industry. This recognition provides useful information on successful practices and encourages managers in other dealerships to implement e-business in their operations.

These businesses won regional and national awards based on criteria that include excellence in the use of e-business tools to enhance communication among customers, dealership employees and the industry, and the degree and quality of e-business training offered to employees.

All winning businesses received the distinctive, personalized CyberDealer Awards trophy. Representatives of the winning regional businesses were flown to Memphis, Tenn., for the Agricultural Retailers Association convention, where the national winner was named.

"Retail businesses have a time-honored record of serving their customers," said Warren Boerger, head of e-business for Syngenta. "These businesses have gone one step further by using new and innovative technological practices to serve their customers and the industry. The CyberDealer Awards provide the opportunity to honor this technological excellence."

"We set out to honor those dealers who are improving their service to growers and showing others what's possible by implementing new technological practices," said Paul Schrimpf, editor of CyberDealer Magazine. "It is a privilege to recognize those who are working to improve the industry with up-to-date, innovative ideas."

For more information on the CyberDealer Awards program, Syngenta Crop Protection, Syngenta Seeds, or the CyberDealer Awards ceremony, visit www.cyberdealerlive.com.

###

** PHOTOS AVAILABLE ** If you would like electronic photos of the ceremony events and winners, please contact Kim McCloskey at (440) 602-9115.

Note: This news brief is being distributed via AgPRonline, www.AgPRonline.com . Feel free to forward this news brief to others you think will find it of interest. If you've received this from a peer and would like to receive future ag tech news briefs, or if for any reason you'd like to be removed, contact Warren E. Clark via e-mail at [email protected] or by phone at +1-847-846-5100. AgPRonline is a product of CCI Marketing, www.ccimarketing.com, a division of Clark Consulting International, Inc., Dundee, Illinois, USA.