AUDIO: Farmers Business Network co-founder Charles Baron
Seed is one of the largest expenses on the farm. Selecting the right seed can be the difference between profit and loss. One company recently released results confirming the ?same seed? different bag theory that farmers have been skeptical about for years.
?We studied the whole industry and we found over 38 percent of corn seeds and 35 percent of soybean seeds were being sold by multiple different companies. Sometimes for nearly as much as a $100 difference a bag in the same state,? Charles Baron, co-founder of Farmers Business Network says.
Farmers have known this for along time but had no way of knowing what to do about it.
?There?s been a lot of frustration from farmers about this. They sent us 7,500 seed tags from around the country. We were able to study the whole issue nationally across the industry. We found that a lot of farmers were over-paying and were accidentally planting duplicate genetics,? Baron says.
Baron says seed companies have a lot to gain from the results.
?It?s not necessarily a bad thing that the same product is available from multiple companies. The hard thing is that farmers can?t tell that that is going on and they can?t see what the actual prices are on the market.”
He says the FBN system allows them to see that for the first time.
View the seed re-labeling results here.
