According to US Farm Report this weekend, only 10% of the world's land is planted with genetically modified organisms. With the rage in the US and other main grain producing areas you would think it would be a higher figure than 10%.
The report from an International Biotech research organization says that:
81% of the soybean seed is GMO
64% of the cotton seed is GMO
29% of the corn seed is GMO because it is hybrid and planted where corn grows best
23% of the canola seed is GMO
My main income is from soybean sales and I live in the United States so I have little choice than to plant GMO seed.
So what will I plant this year? All GMO seed, Liberty Link seed from Bayer Crop Science because it yields well and conquers the weeds I fight right here in southwest Ohio.
I tried to chase the non GMO seed market but my yield started falling short and I made more net income from Liberty Link soybean seed. My Roundup Ready soybean yields are just as good and better if I can control the weeds like they do west of me.
My records show it's a clear choice for me. Liberty Link soybeans. They averaged 61 bushels per acre in this region where the county average yield history is 44 bushels.
Many farmers are fine tuning their final seed needs. Most of us need to wait and see how our cover crop and cereal grains go. My thinking is go with your normal crop rotation first. If economics say you can diverge from that, go for that.
There is so much new information it is hard for anyone to digest. I can barely get through all my email and sort out what is wrong, especially after you read the Internet links.
Ed
Ed you said it best when you said that we have little choice here if we are planting corn or soybeans in the US. Plus, or maybe better said because, most of the seed companies are not pushing their genetics in the Non GMO seeds. Heck a couple of companies dont even offer a Non GMO choice in this area on soybeans.
ReplyDeleteThere are good non GMO's out there but most of the breeding for yield has been in GMO and it is easy to see the difference, especially when you have resistant weeds.
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