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Seed corn price report released

An ag economist says seed corn prices have been steadily increasing since 1996 and that is likely one of the inputs that farmers will tighten next year.

“I would suspect that many farmers are going to look at technology and see if they need all the traits that are out there, probably cut some of the populations, and maybe even look at some seed companies that they haven’t looked at in the past.”

Gary Schnitkey with the University of Illinois tells Brownfield the cost of seed corn has increased by as much as 164 percent since 2006.  “Where we saw the highest increased was between 2006 through 2009.”  He says, “In those four years, we saw double digit increases in seed costs and that happened at the same time that corn prices increased.”

Even with the current low commodity prices, Schnitkey says farmers may see seed costs increase slightly for 2016.  “Seed companies are not reducing seed prices, but if you’re willing to commit a large part of the volume of the farm or pay early, there might be some discounts that are larger than usual.”

Schnitkey says while he doesn’t anticipate major acreage shifts in the middle of the corn belt, there might be lower acreage numbers in general, with the edges of the corn belt becoming more diversified.

AUDIO: Interview with Gary Schnitkey