I know for many, seed selection for 2023 was done a long time ago. We had orders put in months ago too. However, now that we’re coming inside from fieldwork, we are starting to work through what fields will be in what crops and what specific corn hybrids and soybean varieties we actually want to plant and where. We are revising and cleaning up our orders.

Quality performance data has been hard to come by. It seems like most plots only contain one company’s products. Many of the plots do not contain a ‘check’ or ‘tester’ that ensures data isn’t skewed from one side of the plot to the other (due to soil variability, etc.).

Some companies do participate in FIRST and/or University trials, but other companies do not. These trials are generally replicated with a tester, so we are more comfortable with the data. However, they are also ‘pay to play’ so companies enter a limited number of products.

Soybeans selection is especially difficult this year. 2022 marks the year when most growers made the move to Enlist soybeans. Turnover in that space has been dramatic. I would guess that 80-90% of the products offered for 2023 are ‘new’. Companies say that the ‘new’ products are better. But, that in itself makes me wonder why we planted ‘new’ products this year that were so inferior that companies had already made the decision not to plant those same products in seed fields that we were planting in commercial fields.

So, in the end selections will come down to a few different things. How did the product do on our farm this year? (We did do a better job weighing strip trials this year. We will lean hard on that data.) How is the performance data we could find? (If we can find multi-year data, that would be positive for that hybrid/variety.) How much do we trust the salesperson? (We know their job is to sell seed, but what has their track record with us been?) And lastly, price. Price is important, but in high stakes agriculture, a couple of dollars on a bag of seed isn’t really all that important if the product and service is right.

The opinions of the author are not necessarily those of Farm Futures or Farm Progress.