Same soybean seed from two different dealers..

OliverGuy · Mar 30, 2012

I will start out saying that I am an amateur, on the side farmer-I might not know all the ways seed dealers work. I thought I would run a test plot on 60 acres, with 4 kinds of seed at 15 acres/variety. My seed corn dealer had told me that some of my bean seed may be the same but from different dealers (Monsanto owned?) and to look at the lot numbers on the bags to see for sure. Received the second shipment of beans yesterday, yep, sure enough same lot number on two different companies 3.4 beans. So much for my 4 way test plot, it just turned into 3 I guess. What say you guys? Fact or fiction?

Tim(nj) · Mar 30, 2012

Fact. Big M has its tendrils many places into the seed business. I used to buy seed corn from Fielder's Choice until Big M ruined the product for me (I need good cribbing corn, everything they have now shells too easy in the field or won't pull off the stalk without a lot of trash getting in the picker).

Deere Scotty · Mar 30, 2012

True it is! At the same time it is possible to save money with the dealers. Example: 20 years ago I found out Indiana Farm Bureau Co-Op was selling Phunks brand (I think it was). They wanted about $120 a bag for it, & Co-Op bought from them packaged under the Co-Op name. I paid $86.xx for Phunks G corn in a Co-Op bag!

Mike (WA) · Mar 30, 2012

It happens throughout agriculture- my BIL works for Darigold, the biggest dairy processor in the area. He said they package over a hundred different "brands" of butter, all from the same vat. When one order is filled, they just change the stack of papers in the dispenser, and move to the next "brand".

Mark-Mi · Mar 30, 2012

I worked two winters bagging seed corn. Put as much corn in other companies bags as in their own bags.
Then there is the whole business of selling the genetics to other seed companies.

rrlund · Mar 30, 2012

The guy I get fertilizer and chemicals from said it's the same way at the plant where they make glyphosate. Some containers have the Roundup label,the next ones will be some other company,all the same stuff,same containers,just different labels.

There used to be a seed company here that sold "Stanton" brand seed corn for $8-10 a bag back in the day. It was just repackaged Asgro.

Ralph Bauer · Mar 30, 2012

If you look in the April/May issue of Mother Earth, they have on page 48 a graphical breakdown of the bigger 4 (Monsanto, Du Pont, Syngenta and BASF) and their sub-brands/labels. (Article is on GMO foods, starting on page 42.)
If you want some heirloom kind of seeds, check online. Most are pretty expensive, usually sell only a few hundred seeds per package, but if they make it to your liking, you can raise your own seeds in a season or two. Hope this helps. Ralph in Oklahoma.

greygoat · Mar 31, 2012

Butter and Dairy have a "Plant Number", on the
label. Where can I find a list of USDA Plant
numbers. Who they are, and where they are?

kyplowboy · Mar 31, 2012

Yep. I worked one summer in college for Millstone coffee. They sell several diffrent "blends" out of the same batch. When a pallet would get full of one flavor, the line would shut down to change film and then rock on half way through a batch.

Dave

Same soybean seed from two different dealers..

OliverGuy

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Tim(nj)

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Deere Scotty

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Mike (WA)

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Mark-Mi

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rrlund

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Ralph Bauer

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greygoat

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kyplowboy

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