Fall seed harvest off to good start

(FarmWeekNow) — Widespread drought and other weather challenges shouldn’t have a big impact on the production of corn and soybean seed for next year.

In fact, seed industry representatives are quite bullish about new product offerings for 2024.

“The (seed) crop is just now starting to get harvested, and all signs are thumbs up on what we have for the crop,” Eric Boeck, head of Syngenta Seeds, told FarmWeek at the Farm Progress Show (FPS).

“Whether we have more soybeans or hold corn at the level it’s at (on commercial acres in the U.S.), Syngenta is prepared to be able to supply farmers,” he noted.

U.S. farmers increased corn plantings from 88.6 million acres in 2022 to 94.1 million acres this year while reducing bean plantings from 87.5 million to 83.5 million acres during the same time, according to USDA.

Farmers will certainly have more varieties to choose from for 2024. Syngenta has 21 new yellow corn and three new feed corn varieties in its new lineup.

“We’re really excited about our new product launch for corn,” Boeck said. “Twenty-five percent of our portfolio is new products this year.”

One new product Syngenta launched that won’t directly impact Midwest farmers but could have a big effect on oilseeds is camelina. Syngenta unveiled an agreement with Sustainable Oils Inc. at FPS to sell camelina seed.

The oilseed is currently marketed as a new cash crop in Colorado and Kansas.

“It’s really exciting,” Boeck said. “Camelina is a crop that can be used for things like sustainable aviation fuel.”

Golden Harvest celebrated 50 years as a seed company at FPS and promoted its new GHX system there. GHX is a new way to buy seed, which starts with a MaxScript recommendation for the right hybrid at the right population for one flat, per-acre price.

GHX also provides customers with service from an on-call team of experts and no-premium risk assurance with AgriClime weather protection.

In other seed news, Bayer announced an agreement with Pairwise, a food and ag company known for bringing the first gene-edited food to the U.S., focused on innovations in short-stature corn.

The collaboration will focus on optimizing and enhancing gene-edited short-stature corn for future use in Bayer’s Preceon Smart Corn System.

The revolutionary Preceon corn was planted on about 30,000 acres in northern Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and eastern Nebraska this year.

“Next year we’re looking to double the acres and expand the geography,” Devin Hammer, Bayer’s market development manager for smart corn systems, told the RFD Radio Network at FPS. “There’s exciting new opportunities with short-stature corn.”

Preceon short-stature corn was developed to produce ears about 2 feet off the ground to provide protection from wind events, reduce green snap and provide access later into the season for various crop applications.

“It provides more flexibility to manage the crop and helps increase yield potential,” Hammer said. “The excitement is out there.”

Elsewhere, Brent Tharp, technical product manager for Geneseo-based Wyffels Hybrids, reported Wyffels recently introduced 15 new seed products.

“We started (seed) harvest,” he said. “The heat will push our schedule up. (Production) estimates are coming up fine.”

Wyffels, like many other seed companies, offers a variety of early order, pre-pay and volume discounts on seed orders farmers can use to manage costs.

Daniel Grant, FarmWeek

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Dan grew up on a family farm near Roseville, Warren County. He received a degree in journalism from Western Illinois University. He has been working as a journalist since 1991 and has been at FarmWeek since 2005. One way Dan discovers what is important to an Illinois farmer is by simply talking to them at events. He also keeps track of what’s trending on social media. Dan likes to let farmers tell their story and put a face to agriculture when he isn’t covering the markets.

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