Posted on 03/01/2008 7:29:12 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Soybean seed shortage to increase production risks
By Robert H. Wells
Delta Research and Extension Center
STONEVILLE -- With soybean seed in short supply in 2008, Mississippi soybean growers are facing increased production risks including unproven varieties and poor-quality seed.
Mississippi State University Extension Service specialists recommend producers research available varieties to minimize these risks.
“We’re not going to have replant options this year because of the seed shortage,” said Trey Koger, MSU Extension soybean specialist. “Most likely we are going to have one shot at getting a stand, and we don’t need to plant too early when conditions are cool and wet. Be aware of our optimal planting window from April 5 to April 20.”
Soybean seed demand is outpacing supply all over the state, with the most popular varieties proving to be the most difficult, if not impossible, to obtain.
Koger said for information about unfamiliar varieties, producers should refer to Extension personnel, seed distributors, seed companies, the Internet, other states’ variety trials and the Mississippi Soybean Variety Trials.
“Over the past three years, we’ve tested 830 different varieties in the Mississippi variety trials,” Koger said. “That’s going to be an excellent resource to fall back on to provide information on some varieties that we just don’t know a lot about.”
Results of the Mississippi Soybean Variety Trials are published annually and are available at county Extension offices and online.
Koger said a critical aspect to consider before buying soybean seed is its germination rating, which describes the seed’s chances of development.
“About 40 percent of the seed samples being tested for germination in the state seed testing lab are running low germination, with most of it due to mechanical damage that occurred during harvest or post-harvest cleaning,” Koger said. “That is a big concern. When seed has low germination due to mechanical damage, we can’t do anything about it but plant more seed to account for the low germination.”
The soybean specialist said other key traits to research include a variety’s resistance to disease, ability to withstand waterlogged conditions, performance on different soil types like heavy clay, ability to grow on narrow or wide row spacings and accelerated aging test score, which is a good measure of overall seed quality.
Mississippi soybean acreage could approach 2 million in 2008 if weather permits and seed is available for planting, Koger said. This would be a 25 percent increase over 2007 and the state’s highest acreage in a decade.
Demand is high for soybeans in 2008 due to their record price levels and their comparatively low requirement for fertilizer -- a production input that has risen in cost by 25 percent to 40 percent since 2007.
Soybean seed supplies are limited because of adverse weather conditions last year in seed-growing regions of the country, said Dan Poston, MSU northwest district Extension soybean specialist based in Stoneville.
“In southern Illinois, for example, extreme heat during pod fill decreased seed viability, and the hot, dry conditions throughout the year reduced production volume,” Poston said. “Rain delayed harvest in several seed-growing regions, resulting in seed deterioration and overall reductions in seed quality. Consequently, seed companies have had to make major cuts in their supplies for 2008 to remove poor-quality seed.”
Floyd Trammel, general manager of Farmer’s Inc., a seed distributor in Greenville, said he normally orders enough soybean seed to cover typical customer needs, plus a little extra.
“When we did that this year, the seed companies came back and cut those allocations considerably, some more than 50 percent,” Trammel said.
He said the main varieties producers want are in the biggest demand and shortest supply.
“Asgrow 4703, DeKalb 46-51 and Pioneer 94B73 are three of the hottest ones that are being requested right now,” Trammel said.
Trammel said he bought varieties he usually does not buy in order to offset the cutbacks this year.
“We’re going to have soybeans for our producers,” Trammel said. “It just might not be the variety they asked for.”
Ping!
So much for soy alternatives. Are they going to burn soy oil too?
But.............but............but.........I thought ALL of the land was going to be ethanol corn.
So now I’m going to have problems getting enough soybean sead.Just great.I had enough problems last fall finding the seed wheat I needed,now this.
The National Farmers Union had a press release with the following to say:
“SASKATOON, Sask.—Today, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its first projections of world grain supply and demand for the coming crop year: 2007/08.
USDA predicts supplies will plunge to a 53-day equivalent—their lowest level in the 47-year period for which data exists.
http://skepticssa.wordpress.com/category/future/
Could Monsanto and ADM be deliberately reducing the supply of soybean seed to increase the demand for corn seed?
If farmers can’t get their seed,fuel and fertilizer on time,then everybody’s going to suffer.I had extreme difficulty finding enough wheat seed last fall,I’ll start saving some of my crop for seed if I have to.
That was my first thought. They have genetically engineered crops to produce infertile crops to prevent farmers from using some of their own crop as seed the following year. I read a article several years ago that predicted this outcome.
Next, it's the manipulation of base seed crops...higher energy...higher food.
It won't be pretty.
Look for a loaf of bread to be $5.50 in 18 months.
Because of the US deficit spending, we have left ourselves wide-open to global economic manipulation as the dollar declines and OPEC oil producers and global hedge fund giants tighten the noose around the necks of the average American.
Hope you like paying $4.25 / gallon for gas come Memorial Day.
The price of fertilizer is gonna be a killer this year,up about 250 a ton over last year.I hope that folks here don’t blame the farmers when food prices go up,I’m sure not getting rich doing this.Actually I could sell the farm and make more in government bonds even.But I enjoy this so here we go again with a new crop year!
If anybody here bakes their own bread and wants to save some money,I’ll have a few thousand bushels of wheat to sell on or about the 4th of July.
Isn’t all seed hard to come by in the last few years? We always have a hard time getting cotton seed,watermelon, pumpkin and onion seed and it costs 20 times what it used to.
That could be absolutely, but we grow sorghum seed for a large company, we plant it according to their schedule, a month too early, I could go on and on about how incompetent the whole thing is and the paltry yields. If they just let us farm it the way sorghum should be farmed and not by some kind of book interpreted by a few college ag grads who don’t have a clue, they would have seed running out their ears but no...the agronomists sitting in their offices a thousand miles from the farm, know better. The only reason we continue to grow for them is that they pay by the acre, it doesn’t matter what the yield is.
You missed the thread, they already are and a lot of them want to make it so that we can’t export food.
We know that food prices have increased because of fuel costs and that farmers are still taking it in the shorts but they don’t.
Last fall was the first time that I had a problem getting the seed that I needed.Since Becky and I stopped gardening about 10 years ago,a lot may have changed.We are going to restart the garden this year though,I’m sick of the generally poor quality stuff offered in the stores.
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