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Investment firm sees growth for GMO and non-GMO seed

A Michigan investment company says it plans to grow its portfolio of independent and regional seed companies. 

Jim Sheppard with Tillerman Seeds tells Brownfield their group of more than 20 investors with ag and manufacturing backgrounds helps small and regional seed companies improve their equity position.

“We saw a need for these companies to survive and that they needed to have an infusion of cash.”    

So far, the group has acquired Michigan-based DF Seeds and Wisconsin-based Legacy Seeds.

“We’re going through the NDA process with several different companies today, so hopefully we’ll close on one by the end of the year.”   

Sheppard says while more than 90 percent of commodity markets are GMO, there is room for farmers to do both.

“When you get all done, it’s probably going to be very close to the same cost per acre between the two.  Now the advantage would be on a non-GMO product, if you can find where you get a bonus and we know some soybean markets that are paying a dollar over Chicago.”      

He says a new crusher in Southern Indiana, supplying non-GMO soybean meal to dairy farms, is one of the areas they see as an expanding market for farmers in the region.

AUDIO: Brownfield interview with Jim Sheppard during the Michigan Agri-Business Association’s Winter Conference