Handling Seeds of the Field Crops

D. K. CHRISTENSEN, EARL SIEVEKING, AND J. W. NEELY.

THIS YEAR an American farmer will buy 10 pounds of seeds to thicken a mountain meadow. Another may buy 100 thousand pounds to plant 10 thousand corporate acres. Because American seedsmen have built an efficient distribution system, both buyers will be able to get the best seeds for their purposes.

Behind their purchases lie the marketing, processing, and financial resources of hundreds of firms handlers of seeds that are backed by the special skills of tens of thousands of farms devoted wholly or partly to the planned production of good seeds.

The marketing channels and practices that provide the hundreds of kinds and varieties of field-crop seeds may be simple or complex. There may be one contributive function or several.

The simplest marketing cycle is completed when one farmer sells his seeds to his neighbor. Millions of pounds move in that way.

Most distribution, however, calls for a more sophisticated chain of events. Distance between the production area and the planter, reliance on special cleaning techniques, research in plant breeding, storage, financing, and problems of handling broaden the base and add to the list of participants.

Seeds of field crops follow no normal route from producer to user. Most movement, however, involves a grower, a wholesaler, and a retailer. The activities of each vary widely, depending on the item handled. The size and location of any of the three segments modify the pattern of their operation.

From a marketing standpoint, seeds of field crops can be grouped as hybrid corn (and hybrid sorghum); self-pollinated crops, such as soybeans and small grains; cotton; small-seeded forage legumes and grasses and cover crops; and tobacco.

Marketing channels and practices for hybrid seed corn require attention because of the tremendous importance of the crop. It is a 150-million-dollar business and holds a unique and basic position in the seed industry. An estimated 14 million bushels of hybrid seeds were used in 1959 to plant nearly 81 million acres and produce a crop of 4 billion bushels of grain.

An overwhelming percentage of the volume is handled by fewer than a dozen large companies. Their hybrids are called "closed pedigree" because the identification of the inbred lines used in formulating them is not disclosed. The companies have their own breeding and research departments and their own sales outlets. The distribution process is highly integrated.

The hybrids are developed from breeding materials provided by public agencies, combined with developments of the wholesaler's own research. Such companies contract for production with expert growers. The grower agrees to deliver his entire crop to the contracting wholesaler. Field inspections, roguing, detasseling, husking, shelling, drying, recleaning, grading, and testing usually are done by the wholesaler. The large wholesaler then moves his finished hybrid seed corn to the consumer through farmer-dealers or country dealers.

The farmer-dealer usually covers a relatively small area. His coverage is intensive and effective. Because his stocks are usually supplied by the wholesaler on a guaranteed-sale basis, he has little financial risk.

There are thousands of such farmer-dealers. Individually, they form no huge single enterprises, but collectively they sell a high percentage of the hybrid seed corn.

A wholesaler who deals directly with a farmer-dealer bypasses the country dealer, who maintains a place of business and sells other items to the farmer. When such a dealer loses his seed-corn contact with the farmer, he may lose other business. The country dealer therefore is becoming more active on direct farm calls with his own employees or his own version of the farmer-agent.

Besides the privately owned hybrids, a sizable business is done on hybrid seed corn by firms who offer only publicly developed varieties. Public institutions release the basic inbreds, developed by their research, through recognized foundation seed organizations or directly to individual farmers and to small seed firms. The smaller seed firms may then contract with farmers for the production of the hybrid seed. Distribution is handled in much the same manner as privately developed hybrids. Some of the independent farmer-growers perform the wholesale and retail functions themselves.

Much of the seed produced under this plan is certified. Because of the general availability of such hybrids and the obvious need to compete with others producing an almost identical product, price is more of a factor in merchandising than it is for private varieties.

All in all, the marketing of hybrid seed corn is one of the most orderly endeavors in the seed industry.

New hybrids of sorghums, dramatically superior to open-pollinated varieties and types, are handled in much the same way as hybrid seed corn. Large companies that have their own breeding, research, and sales programs and smaller firms that rely mainly on publicly released varieties compete for the farmer's business. Seeds of hybrid sorghums move in volume at retail through the direct-seller or farmer-agents.

The contract grower of both hybrid corn and hybrid sorghum usually is paid some specified premium over grain prices for his special knowledge and effort. The independent grower has no such price or outlet limitations, but he undertakes the considerable responsibility of processing, financing, and marketing.

SMALL GRAINS, such as wheat, oats, and barley, involve the simplest form of marketing activity.

Generally the farmer saves a part of his own production to use as seeds for the succeeding crop. The farmer may have the grain he saves cleaned and treated by a retailer, who has the equipment for it. A few send samples of the seeds to a laboratory for tests of purity and germination. Far too often farmers plant grains for seed that have not been cleaned, treated, or tested. They learn only by results on their farms how well the seeds grow and what kinds of weed seeds they may be planting.

A desire for seeds of better quality or for a newer variety may lead the grain farmer to look beyond his own bin for a source of supply. His neighbor, who has a newer or different variety, or a nearby producer of certified seed will be the most likely candidate for his business. This producer-to-farmer type of transaction is typical of the uninvolved marketing system employed for the movement of most self-pollinated seed grains.

New varieties usually are provided by the public institutions. Private research can hardly afford large sums for breeding and development without some control over production and distribution. Only a small percentage of the publicly developed varieties are handled by the regular wholesale seed trade.

Some large farm operators, notably growers of barley and rice in California, have undertaken the processing and distribution of seeds on a large scale. They grow and sell certified seed. The trading route is grower-producer to grower-consumer. It represents an effort of some depth and may well alter the hit-or-miss marketing practices for grain seeds of the past.

The age of nonprofessional discovery is still with us. It also affects marketing procedures. The principal variety of spring malting barley used in the upper Midwest in the past several years was selected originally by a North Dakota farmer. One of the leading hard red winter wheats used in the Southern Great Plains also was developed by one self-taught farmer-breeder. Both of these prominent varieties were accepted for certification after being tested and recommended by State agricultural experiment stations and are marketed the same way as other self-pollinated seed grains.

Such oil-seed crops as soybeans and flax generally are handled and marketed in the same way as the small grains. Growers have the alternative of selling them for oil or for seed. The need to retain a seed crop until spring with attendant expenses and market risks has limited somewhat production exclusively for seeds.

MARKETING PRACTICES for seeds of cotton have been affected by the predominance of varieties developed by private breeders and by the practice of farmers who regularly replace their seed stocks.

Cotton is open pollinated. To avoid the danger of mixtures, farmers do not attempt to maintain their own seed supply to the extent that they do with many grains. Their search for new supplies therefore makes them constant customers of those breeders who do the best job. That and the one-variety plan have developed marketing practices for cotton seeds somewhat different from those for other crops.

The development of marketing channels for cotton seeds has led to the growth of those in private enterprise who maintain effective improvement and maintenance programs. In the South and Southeast, plantings of privately bred varieties range from about 5o percent in Alabama to more than 90 percent in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, and Texas. The situation is reversed in the Southwest; 85 percent to 95 percent of the acreage in California, Arizona, and New Mexico is planted to varieties developed by public agencies.

Registered seed of privately developed varieties usually is grown and distributed by the breeder. Sometimes he may have it grown under firm contract for him. The breeder supervises or handles the production to maintain genetic identity and high purity. The seed is classed as registered if it meets the requirements of the official State seed-certifying agency. The registered seed is then usually sold by the breeder to a wholesaler, who sells it through normal commercial channels.

Registered seed of varieties resulting from public breeding programs usually is sold by the private grower or by a cooperative association of growers, to wholesalers, farmer cooperatives, or to individual farmers. The ginner often does some of the seed distribution. Certified cotton seed is sold sometimes by the grower to the ginner, who may in turn sell to a wholesaler or even direct to the user. Ginners as well as wholesalers on occasion may have firm contracts with growers for certified seed.

Noncertified cotton seed is usually sold direct to the farmer by the ginner or the grower.

Some cotton seed is sold through brokers an estimated 5 to 10 percent of the total volume of registered and certified seed. Smaller amounts of noncertified seed also are sold through brokers.

The importance of choosing the best varieties for an area has been recognized as a good practice since the time that varietal evaluation was developed and accepted.

One of the first services of the agricultural research agencies in sections where cotton became an important crop was the evaluation of varieties and the recommendation of suitable ones to farmers. A large number of varieties persisted nevertheless, and a large part of the acreage was planted to unadapted, poor-performing varieties or to mixed and deteriorated seed stocks.