Wednesday, April 3, 2013

The Seed Is Worth More Than The Planter

I came across this post on Machinery Talk and that this was a very quotable post.

"The seed is worth more than the planter."

I am not sure I've ever done this but probably I have.  When I had six units full of $159 seed corn on a 40 year old White 5100 no till planter, I may have been coming close.

In recent years, when I put 30 bags of it in a $30,000 12 row planter I wasn't coming close.  I hope my planter was always worth more than I seed I  put into it, but that's a good question.  Is your planter worth more than the seed you put into it?

Whatever it costs, I need the best planter I can find that will do the job I need it to do.  That was a 1976 White 5100 planter, modified greatly.  That planter lasted me for years.  I should have kept it for a HyMark Ag Museum but I passed it on to another young farmer instead.  I needed a little bigger planter, an 8 row, a 12 row and last year we used a 24 row.  That was a little too big for this little guy.

I need the best seed I can find to put into it, that was First Choice and Porter corn hybrids.  Another group of friends are introducing Genesys Seeds where the farmer owns the company and controls the shots.  Whatever you choose, make sure it does the job you need it to do.  I am so amazed so many farmers buy so many traits I really don't think they need.  They get hooked on the salesman and the company he represents rather than the product that represents them.  Thankfully, I tested and tried every seed and trait known to man early on and learned they didn't have one thing over what I was already planting.

Yesterday I took delivery on some 40 year old genetics from my friend in Iowa.  Those pictures of soybean florets in my posts are now seed in my barn.  Dr. Richard Cooper developed them at OARDC for his 100 bushel soybean experiments in the 70's.  He bred semi-dwarf soybeans that would yield well and not fall down.  I need them to make at least 70% of what they made as seed for a good profit.  I don't forget those 100 bushel beans right beside 20 bu GMO fields.

That makes $1000 worth of seed in a $40,000 drill or planter for me.  I am not so concerned who made the planter as I am who bred the seed and who produced it.

I think there is a whole lot of unknown value of seed.  You can see the planter but you can't see inside the seed's history unless you look real hard.

Billions of dollars worth of seed is poised to go into the ground right now.

Is it really the best seed for that farmer or has he been lead down the path of the machinery salesman?

Ed

6 comments:

  1. I think it is a good thing we got the Monsanto Protection act passed. They really don't deserve any lawsuits. I'm sure they will do their best to keep seed prices high once they have their monopoly on genetics.
    If it makes you feel any better we will plant our 40 acres of corn with a slightly modified White 5100.
    You don't have a SM-3000 or 4000 monitor laying around do you?

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  2. Or know anyone with a good FWA for a White 2-155, 135, 180 ?

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  3. If I was ever to fill up even the small tank of my little Bourgault air seeder with RR canola seed it would surely be worth more than the whole tank. Even the cheap canola is over $10 a pound now since the tech fee is included in the price per pound.

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  4. Budde, I smell government smoke and mirrors on your first post.

    I will help you source an FWA for your tractor, just ask.

    $10 a pound, Ralph, that sounds like the price of something more permanent. I admit though that quality seed that produces more is worth a lot of money. I am not sure how much that should be but in today's market, wheat seed I want is over $20 a bushel, non GMO soybeans are over 30 and corn is $200 a bushel.

    Ed

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