Seed company liability limitations

[hobbyfrmr]

Seed companies are definitely trying to make money. Clever marketing like an alien speaking gibberish in the western producer is enough to open a farmers wallet. My 4 year old loves that advertisement and I shake my head. So insulting.
Why not lobby the canola council to communicate to seed companies to hang on to a variety. As described above, farmers pay a checkoff. Make the canola council work for you. It can be as simple as an internet poll. Layout all the varieties and farmers pick 1 or 2 of their favorites. The majority wins, and the council meets with seed company and says keep this one. I wont satisfy everybody, but its a little bit more sophisticated method of communication instead of telling the seed companies/growers to eff off! Hopper, I understand your frustration, but its just not the best way to get the real message to the seed companies.

[parsley]

Find someone you trust. Who knows farming.
Open a webpage. Enroll as a real person and get
assigned a user name One page could be
dedicated to varieties and your input would rank
them.

One page ranking companies' service from your
input One page etc etc.

All public. Plus info pages for farmers only. Pars.

[wd9]

I can appreciate the comments on council
doing a farmers job for them, but is it
just because you want someone else to
blame?

Have farmers become that lazy? I fear
so.

Do your own trials. I only farm 1300
acres but almost every year have at
least 5 different plots on the go. ESN,
variety, fungicide etc.


i also do seed company plots for them
and partner with them. They learn, but
God do i learn about new varieties. Its
win win.

Farmers need to take back control of
their farms, take responsibility for
decisions not blindly following
salesmen, agronomists, seed companies,
don't even get me started on companies
like Ohmex. OMFG!

With deregulation of fert products it
also is gonna be loaded with even more
snake oil.

Farmers have a lot of money and it would
seem naive as a school girl. Wake up
call time - companies don't have your
bottom line in mind, they have theirs!

Where does the responsibility of a seed
company end? Still looking for that
answer.

[Burbert]

Did ya hold back a sample of yer majic
seeds? Have it lab tested, if'n there is
no germ, maybe, just maybe ya gotta a case
fer liability agin the seed seller, might
need a lawyer ta git there attention
though! Summa the sellers try ta sell ya
old shit from last year, while tryin ta
get a new modern price fer it 2.

[wd9]

The other burning question, why doesn't
this happen in wheat varieties? Does
your seed guy come out and look at your
wheat field or do you complain about
performance and do you constantly
switch varieties?

I'd venture to guess not. Past 15 years
i've grown AC Barrie, then AC harvest.
Am looking at some new varieties, but
will proceed very carefully.

Shouldn't i take the same approach in
canola?

[Partners]

For some reason the New Wht. and Bly's seem to do well, unlike the New canola's..

[uneducatedbum]

wd9...you make some very good points. I
am also interested where liability ends.
I'm guessing, if the germ and vigor test
pass the standard, it will be very hard
to get any money back from a seed
company. But is that right that it ends
there? I know I don't have the money or
time to take a company to court to see
if it can go any further...

On the other hand, I want investment to
continue in new varieties and bioscience
and if it gets to a spot where the
company owns it until I take it to
yield, the either I will have to pay
more for seed or they will stop
investing.

Wheat and canola are different because I
can legally seed bin run wheat, I need
to buy more canola seed each year, and
they change varieties so much, that
buyer beware becomes challenging and I
can't get the variety I like.

Just an interesting note: I was at a
meeting this summer with bayers national
marketing manager. I asked him if they
have ever thought about keeping some of
the classics around 5020, 5030 ect...he
told me that inventory levels suggest
that farmers talk about wanting these
old varieties but don't actually buy
them when something new is available...

[wd9]

There is no standardized vigour test, Only
germ.

More and more wheat varieties have
contracts associated with them and do not
allow you to seed your own progeny, or
allow just one year.

[uneducatedbum]

Fair enough wd, in what situation would
you complain to your seed company and
expect something to happen? Or something
should happen?

[wmoebis]

Not sure if this fits in but. I was told years ago by older farmers that, at least for wheat, it takes 2 or 3 yrs off certified seed for new seed to get climatized and familiar with each growing situation, climate, soil type etc.

Thus you will see better results from over 3 yr bin run compared to certified seed. As long as bin run is handled properly.

Maybe same is true for canola.

I can't prove or disprove just something I had herd.