Not Unlike clothing stores attuned to the latest fashions, ag retailers will be carrying certain must-have seed and seed accessories for spring 2007. Some of these products will be updates to last year's styles, and some will be brand new, depending on the ag retail location. No matter what the specific product, seed, seed treatments and seed-related equipment have become a much larger part of the ag retailer's portfolio. And not unlike the sale of haute couture, selling seed requires attention to detail and strong sales skills.

The previous growing season is an indicator of what will be in demand this spring. Mike Vande Logt, vice president, seed sales and marketing, Croplan Genetics, St. Paul, MN, says that last season seed treated with CruiserMaxx 250 performed well against early-season insects and diseases. He believes that “there will be an ever increasing amount of treated seed in the future.” CruiserMaxx 250 is a commercially applied combination of Maxim XL fungicide and Cruiser, a seed-applied insecticide that provides protection against white grub, wireworm, corn flea beetle and seed-corn maggot.

Ron Milby, Growmark, Bloomington, IL, notes that CruiserMaxx Beans for soybeans will likely be in more retailer portfolios to help mitigate replants. This insecticide/fungicide seed treatment combination protects seeds and seedlings against a range of insects (including aphids, bean leaf beetle, seed-corn maggot, wireworm, white grub, grape colaspis, leafhopper, three-cornered alfalfa hopper and thrips), fungi (Pythium, early-season Phytophthora, Rhizoctonia, Fusarium, seedborne Sclerotinia and seedborne Phomopsis) and seed rots.

Nathan Wright, seed treatment and grain protection business manager, Agriliance, St. Paul, MN, points out that, to sell CruiserMaxx, an ag retailer must be a Certified CruiserMaxx Pak Treater using a Universal brand seed treater. Agriliance provides a line of AgriSolutions crop protection products, including CruiserMaxx Pak with Warden RTA (a fungicide that protects against Pythium, Phytophthora, Rhizoctonia, Fusarium, seedborne Phomopsis, Aspergillus, Penicillium, seedborne Sclerotinia and general seed rots).

Wright also reports that some ag retailers who are commercially treating seed corn will offer seed-applied micronutrients next spring. Agriliance, for example, is offering a seed-applied nutritional zinc product called Advanced Coating Zn to seed companies and ag retailers. The product has been in seed company trials this year on corn, sorghum and soybean seed.

In addition to aiding plant growth, development and health, the polymer coating of this product “slickens” the seed, which reduces dust-off and improves the plantability of seed treated with some of the newest seed-applied insecticides, says Wright, adding that micronutrients will require separate mix tanks because they cannot be mixed with inoculants.

Traditionally, fungicides served as the base for seed-treatment services. But more ag retailers now also offer commercial application of inoculants as well as seed-applied insecticides, Wright says. “The next big opportunity will be seed-applied nutritional products,” he says, noting that in addition to treating soybean seed, more retailers are treating wheat and edible soybean seed and, more gradually, corn seed. “Commercial seed treatments provide good margin opportunities for retailers,” he says.

Growers are willing to pay for commercial seed-treating services, observes Troy Johnson, national director of seed, Wilbur-Ellis, Lakeville, MN, adding that suppliers are willing to work with retailers on setting up treatment systems.

Seed treatments are part of what Johnson defines as a “stack,” which also includes good genetics and transgenic traits. “All three elements are necessary to provide value to your customers,” Johnson says. Most of the new technologies coming out of the pipeline now and in the near future can be delivered to the grower “in or on the seed,” he says. He adds that, when ag retailers combine these technologies with fertilizer and crop protection products, they are in a unique position to provide complete solutions to growers.

The ag retailer's seed portfolio will continue to be dynamic because the major biotech trait suppliers will continue to introduce new technologies. This means that ag retailers will need to pick and choose products that best fit their customers' needs and will need to employ people who are knowledgeable about seed. “Growers equate experience with knowledge,” Johnson says. “They want to see their suppliers have hands-on experience. That's why I think you have to employ seedsmen.” He thinks that ag retailers who are experimenting with new technologies and planting test plots will have a competitive edge.

Seed is where margins will be, Johnson says, adding that more retailers will be deciding whether to provide their own proprietary seed brand or a national brand. “I think there's a place for both,” he says, but notes that owning a proprietary brand allows a retailer the “freedom to combine genetics, traits and seed treatments.”

Johnson says that Greenleaf Genetics, the new 50/50 joint venture between Syngenta Seeds and Pioneer Hi-Bred International, will provide more choice in the marketplace since it will out-license genetics to other U.S. and Canadian seed companies. It also will cross-license certain corn and soybean traits (including the new Optimum GAT herbicide-tolerant trait developed by DuPont).

Milby thinks that ag retailers may need to narrow both their seed and crop protection lineups to maintain focus. He suggests that concentrating on a good preemergence residual herbicide followed by an effective postapplication herbicide is good for both the farmer who needs protection against early weeds and for the retailer who needs a fair margin.

Milby suggests that retailers narrow the number of seed brands they carry to two or three, as well as the total number of hybrids, to save time and effort. Most retailers sell crop protection products and fertilizer, but they “must accelerate their seed growth to make up margins. Seed can combat the decline in margins for other products,” he says. He notes that offering seed-treating services will help.

These industry representatives agree that stacked trait products will likely be in retailers' portfolios for the 2007 growing season. Growmark's Milby says stacked products containing corn rootworm protection “are coming on strong” in central and eastern Illinois, all of Iowa and southern Wisconsin. At the same time, Roundup Ready and corn borer-resistance traits have grown in popularity in the southern one-third of Illinois as well as in central and northern Wisconsin.

The number of “trait acres” will continue to increase, Milby says. There were 10 million acres planted in seed with corn rootworm-protection traits this year. “We're projecting 18 million acres next year,” he says, adding that before transgenic corn rootworm-protected corn was introduced, growers treated only about 17 million acres with conventional insecticides.

In 2006, growers planted 35 million acres to Roundup Ready corn, and this number is projected to grow to 48 million acres next year. “We'll also see Bt corn acres, currently on 40 million acres, to inch up again next year,” Milby says.

“Corn rootworm technology feels a lot like Roundup Ready soybeans did in 1997,” says Wilbur Ellis's Johnson. “The technology has proven to provide value to growers,” he says, adding that growers will seek out the trait in one brand or another.

Vande Logt of Croplan Genetics says there has been a great deal of corn rootworm pressure this summer so he expects demand for rootworm-resistant traits to carry through to next season. He adds that spring 2006 was very dry in many areas and that glyphosate herbicides performed better than other preplant herbicides requiring more spring moisture. “This bodes well for the future of glyphosate-tolerant products,” he says.

Because crops in the Ohio River Valley and parts of California were damaged in 2006 due to black cutworm, sales of Herculex RW (rootworm-protected) corn may increase in those areas, Vande Logt says.

“Many of the transgenic trait technologies are replacing crop protection products, but it's a more complex sell,” he says. “Those who really know the seed business will have an opportunity to add margins to the bottom line while those who don't get into seed and help farmers improve their incomes on an acre-by-acre basis will have a more difficult time maintaining margins.”

Vande Logt thinks biotech products will become a major part of ag retailers' businesses. This part of their portfolio will grow even more when improved drought-tolerance traits and better nitrogen utilization traits enter the market, he says.

Milby adds that the new transgenic traits offer more consistency in performance and “risk mitigation” from one year to the next. This is another reason why many more acres are being planted to them.

Bulk handling, which already is big in the soybean business, also will likely grow in the corn business because growers like the convenience, says Agriliance's Wright.

Milby has seen an increase in the use of Buckhorn center-flow containers, for example. These bulk containers hold up to 2,500 lbs. of seed, and their center exit port allows quick emptying of contents. They also may be stacked and nested to reduce storage and shipping space requirements.

Seed tenders, such as those from Friesen USA Inc., and a combination weigh wagon/seed tender unit made by Par-Kan Company, also are growing in popularity with retailers, Milby observes.

More retailers around the country are putting their own test results and experiences into their seed portfolios. Wilbur-Ellis, for example, is working with Monsanto in California to evaluate whether using a twin-row planter on small corn acreages could help improve yields, and it will share the findings with customers.

Growmark is increasing its seed-testing efforts with “advancement” and “placement” trials. In the advancement trials, it is comparing experimental products to its current products and the products of competitors. In placement trials, the company is testing how its products perform across many different soils, tillage practices and other agronomic practices. “The more we know about our products in these different situations, the better we can place them and recommend good solutions,” Milby says.

Wright and Vande Logt have been communicating seed-treatment benefits through 75 Agriliance and Croplan Genetics demonstration plots in 62 locations in 23 states. They host a number of dealer meetings and use their connections to more than 500 agronomy production specialists to help growers realize seed treatment benefits on their acres. Agriliance also gives dealers and company-owned retail locations informational materials they can use with growers to position AgriSolutions brand seed treatments and the new Advanced Coating Zn.

These experts agree that seed, seed treatments, seed-related equipment, seed knowledge and hands-on experience have become (and will garner) a much larger part of the ag retailer's portfolio and profit opportunities, in 2007 and beyond.

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