Seed Corn $$

I've found very little difference in price if any. Maybe a larger farmer would see a big difference.

Tbone95 wrote: My seed source is roughly 12-15% cheaper if you preorder, but only if you pay for it by December. There's sort of a sliding scale of decreasing discounts as the months go by after that. In fact, I'll be ordering tonight.   (They don't hold you to this order, it's just to give them an idea of what's going on)

They've told me that too but when I've waited I still got the same price at the end of March.

Lonn, Thank you for that reply, and that's EXACTLY what I figured was going on .

I've gotten substitutions, small additions, that type of things, a few bags worth, at the "preorder price" in May while planting. I've gotten more expensive substitutions for the pre order price of the original cheaper product. Me nor anyone else is trying to score the whole farm seed order in that way.

Edited by Tbone95 - 27 Aug 2020 at 6:57am

Some posts are just long, slow train wrecks waiting to happen, you just have to hang around long enough. It seems a lot of them have two ?? in the title.

The seed company I sell for wants us to start in August and it does give the best overall discount. Each month on the 15th the discount decreases from now until spring. Different companies have different rules to go by on pricing. For us whatever you lock in now by ordering or paying is still good come April or May if you change quantity up. Otherwise about the only thing I can do next spring to get the total cost down is to try and throw in some free "marketing" bags. This is from a family owned seed corn company that still has their own breeding program and isn't owned by any of the big companies.

JoeO(CMO) wrote: ? What is selling price of seed corn now? Curious! When I came out of the service in the mid 60's I worked behind the counter at the local exchange and during the seed corn booking, come to think of it, I don't remember what the price was then.

Well, that's a very complicated question!   

All depends on what you want. It's like asking what does a tool cost, or what does a "car" cost.

Maybe some small companies offer stuff much cheaper, but figure $200 per bag and up. WAY up!

Tbone95 wrote: jay, there are 80,000 kernels in a bag. Personally, I plant 33,500 seeds per acre and the seed I buy generally costs in the $260-$285 ball park. So roughly $120 per acre in seed. Add to that: Fertilizer, Spray, Fuel, rent/taxes, … A good year of yield for me and my area is 175 - 180 bushels per acre. Hard to get much more here but possible. Very easy to get less. Much less. 180 bushels x $3.25 = $585 gross per acre. Last year, corn would NOT dry down in the field something terrible, and that dockage or drying cost pushed me to negative returns. Go down to the "I-states" area, and those numbers can nearly double. But also so do the fertilizer inputs and LAND CO$T$!!!

jaybmiller wrote: thanks for the 'numbers'... now a followup question... is there some reason you don't save corn for seeding next year ? When I had teh GleanerA , I'd save all the rye and plant as next year's Winter cover crop. Sounds like corn seed is $$$, so to reduce 'input costs' can't you  use yours ?? curious.. Jay

Two reasons why you don't:
1. The seeds we plant are the seeds from a plant Hybrid. If you were to plant the product corn of that, it wouldn't grow a plant like the plant it came from, so your characteristics and traits would not be a controlled thing. Usually don't produce well. Plus, seed corn needs to be very carefully dried, and harvested and handled in such a way to preserve the germ area where it attaches to the cob. Lots of damage occurs to this stuff when handled like the massive bulk of corn is handled.

2. "Most" seed corn you now sign a technology agreement that forbids this practice. Roundup Ready, BT, Liberty Link, etc. traits are patented, the patents are owned by the big companies (DuPont, Bayer, Etc.), you literally have a license agreement to use their seed, but not to produce for seed. They can audit you, can detect what you've done, and can be BIG trouble if you get caught. More so with soybeans, because they will produce when seeded, so more tempting to do so.

Edited by Tbone95 - 03 Sep 2020 at 8:40am