How do you justify this?

[cowman]

The neighbor bought some Roundup ready canola seed before Christmas. He paid $296/bag! Not sure how many bushels are in a bag but would suspect slightly over a bushel?
This did not include the $15/acre "patent" thing...or so he claimed!
Now the day he harvests the crop how much will he get per bushel? I doubt it will be anything like $296...more like $5! Someone is sure making a good markup on this seed and I doubt it is some greedy seedgrower?
Am I missing something here?

[Ron]

pardon my ignorance about canola but how many acres does a bag seed ?

[carebear300]

depends on the size of the bag, if that happens to be a 50 lb. bag it will seed about 10 to 12 acres.

[carebear300]

thanks carebear.

[WoolyBear]

$296 / 55 lbs/bag = $5.38/lb

$5.38 x 5 lbs/acre = $26.90 / acre $15 for the damn TUA = $41.90/acre

It would take over 8 bushels/acre just to pay for the seed!

Lets not forget the diesel, the freight, the herbicides, the labor (OH....farmers work for nothing don't you know), the taxes, the insurance, the machinery cost, the interest, rent etc.......

Might make it pretty easy for most of us to pull a Percy and open the bin doors.

$5.00 / 50 lbs/bushel x 10 lbs/acre is a savings of $40/acre. Maybe the wife can have a holiday and quit her job!

[cowman]

So I wonder who gets the $296 for a bag of seed? Is it the seedgrower or Monsanto? Isn't Monsanto already getting $15/acre for their patent rights? Do they even try to justify the price of a bag of seed or is it just whatever the market will bare?

[furrowtickler]

It is "whatever the market can bare".
I have worked in the canola seed industry for 12 years and one seed company has lead this all the way.
Invigour, scince it's exsistance has been able to sell out every year, that is their perseption. Every year they "sell out" they then can raise the price again the next. So who is to blame? All the other seed compamies have taken notice to what the maket will bare. 2005 was the first year "extra"invigourcame available in the spring.
Brown bag seed is making a comeback in some varieties but a problem may develope this spring. Bayer owns Goucho now so seed treament for brown bag may become hard to find very soon.