With market prices low, farmers are seeking ways to lower their input costs, but experts caution that attempting to save money by planting soybeans stored in their bins might not yield the best financial results.

"Seed costs account for no more than 15 percent of the grower's expense," according to Tex Young, agronomist for Great Lakes Hybrids, a national seed company based in Ovid, Mich. "Cutting corners in seed costs is not a wise management practice for experienced producers."

Randy Judd, manager of the Michigan Crop Improvements Association in East Lansing, Mich., said he has already examined farmers' bin-run seed, left-over from last year, and the quality is generally pretty poor. "We had a stressful dry-down period last season during harvest," he said.
"You can't necessarily see the damage to the seed, but it's there."

The Illinois Crop Improvement Association conducted a 19-year study and found an advantage of 2.73 bushels per acre for certified seed over non-certified soybean seed. Similar university studies have also found that bin-run seed costs the farmer 2 to 5 bushels per acre in yield.

When soybean seed is over-wintered in a bin, fluctuations in temperature and humidity during storage can deteriorate the germ in the seed, leading to a number of emergence problems, Young said. Bin-run seed also tends to contain a high weed seed content as well as Sclerotinia from
white mold disease. If not cleaned properly, this can add to higher than normal weed and disease pressure.

"Farmers who think they are cutting costs by using bin-run seeds find that it actually becomes very costly at harvest time," Young said.

Mitch Ray, soybean product manager at Great Lakes Hybrids, said that approximately 21 percent of production acres will be planted with bin-run soybeans in the United States this year. That figure is down from 23 percent last year, largely due to the fact that under Monsanto's contract with farmers, it is illegal to plant bin-run Roundup Ready® soybeans.

Ray said solutions for cash-strapped farmers include buying good-quality, certified seed, but planting less of it; employing no-till farming; and using fewer chemicals. "I can understand trying to cut input costs, but seed is not the place to do it," he said.

Great Lakes Hybrids is affiliated with KWS in Germany, a seed-only company, and has research stations in Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa and Puerto Rico. This strong, proven research program has been able to produce top performing conventional genetics for incorporation of the new transgenic traits. The company has also produced more National Corn Growers Association's Corn Yield Contest winners per entry in the 1990s than any other company in the Midwest. For the latest information or to find your local dealer, visit www.glh-seeds.com or call 1-800-257-SEED.

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