About the time you think things have settled down and there couldn't be any more change in the seed industry, change happens. The positioning continues as companies align themselves with one another to be able to deliver traits and choices of traits to their customers.

Both Beck's Hybrids, Indiana –based at Atlanta, Ind., and Syngenta announced last Friday that there will be a new seed brand in 2012. It will be Phoenix. Syngenta noted that Beck's will introduce the brand into their marketing area next year, in 2012, with perhaps other companies picking up the brand in the future.

The benefit for Beck's, according to the release they issues, was that it will give their customers access to diverse genetics and leading traits. Those traits will include Syngenta's Agrisure 3000GT and Agrisure Viptera 3111. Both are stacked hybrids.

Beck's ahs already been offering the Agrisure Viptera 3111 trait stack. Now it will be in genetics developed by Syngenta. Beck's Hybrids primarily markets in the Eastern Corn Belt.

Beck's is also a partner with Pioneer, in selling ProAccess genetics from Pioneer. Several companies are ProAccess partners, although Pioneer has purchased some of the companies that originally partnered with them, including Seed Consultants, Inc. in Washington Courthouse, Ohio.

Meanwhile, Dow AgroSciences continues the trend of buying smaller companies and adding them to their stable. They have been on this mission for about two years.

This team they purchased a small company, Prairie Brand Seed of Iowa. Officially, they are buying the brand and certain other assets from Sansgaard Seeds.

According to Dow AgroSciences spokesperson Ben Kaehler, Sansgaard Seed has sold soybeans for seven decades. Just recently, they've added hybrid corn to their line-up of seed offering."

The plan is to have another Midwestern outlet for their seed and other products, Syngenta says.

These recent moves confirm that companies are still eyeing various ways to move the technology they are investing in heavily into as many markets as they can. The name of the game seems to be trying to get payback for large amounts of money invested n research.

For Dow AgroSciences, picking up Prairie Seeds give them another opportunity to market Smart Stax corn. They developed those hybrids with Monsanto. Each of these hybrids contains eight genes. The idea is to provide more opportunities to get Smart Stax seed in front of the public.