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Roundup Ready Seeds good or bad

Trinity man

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Feb 12, 2009
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Location
Guy Store, Texas
Even though deep snowdrifts cover his fields in eastern Kansas, Luke Ulrich, a corn and soybean farmer here, is thinking about spring. It's time to buy seed again, but hundreds of seed companies have gone under in the past two decades.

Ulrich remembers the days before genetically modified seeds upended the industry. Critics of the big agriculture biotech company Monsanto say its popular Roundup Ready technology is to blame for that. Roundup Ready is a line of gene-modified seeds that inoculate plants against a herbicide, Roundup, also made by Monsanto, that kills just about everything else.

"Ever since they've come out with the Roundup Ready trait and that became popular and basically took over farming, we've seen significant increases every single year," Ulrich says.

Ulrich says his seed costs shot up almost 50 percent last year. That's because farmers are contractually prohibited from saving seeds and planting them the following year.


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122498255
 
I got a quote on seed the other day and it was $162 to $184 per bag. It's getting pretty expensive for beef cow feed. I've got enough carry over seed for next year so I'll be fine one more year. We are looking into open pollinated corn which we could save our own seed from. Sounds like yields are'nt as good but the feed quality is higher we most likely will try 5 acres of it just to try it. With the price of fuel we won't increase our corn acreage just improve pasture and hayland. I use corn as a rotation to upgrade hayground.

I'm more of a low cost producer I use corn silage to supplement poorer meadow hay works for me.

The new corn is set for maximum production not necessarily maximum profits same as cattle genetics. Oats are looking better all the time.
 
Denny said:
I got a quote on seed the other day and it was $162 to $184 per bag. It's getting pretty expensive for beef cow feed. I've got enough carry over seed for next year so I'll be fine one more year. We are looking into open pollinated corn which we could save our own seed from. Sounds like yields are'nt as good but the feed quality is higher we most likely will try 5 acres of it just to try it. With the price of fuel we won't increase our corn acreage just improve pasture and hayland. I use corn as a rotation to upgrade hayground.

I will definitely be watching to see how it works for you. In fact, I might try some myself this year. I'm sick of getting screwed on seed prices.
 
When corporations can put people out of business by suing them over alleged "Patent Infringement", only because they can't afford to fight back, then our justice systems have failed. Farmers everywhere need to be more aware of how crucial it is to save their own seed varieties and preserve them, otherwise we could end up seeing corn and soybean-type scenarios all across the food industry. Can you imagine Monsanto suing you for growing their alfalfa illegally, even though you never seeded it there? If it cross pollinates or blows into your hay fields, you could be in the same tight spot as thousands of farmers have been with corn and soybeans. Hopefully they can be kept from monopolizing forage markets or any other seed.
 
Take a look at the Western Seducer's article on flax seed this week... There is talk about disallowing farmer saved seed and ag companies refusing to buy from fields seeded with non certified seed. :shock:
 
I use round up ready about every 3rd year in a plot. On the off years I plant a little later and burn down with Round up right behind the planter. Then put out Aterozeen (sp) to control weeds. It seems to work just as well.
 
I would rather have a sister in a whore house than a brother working for monsanto - they are the devils child.

Anyone from a genetically modified seed company shows up on my place they are asked to leave - and it is not polite.

I have had my fun with them - they are heavy, rich and bastards - some day they will control ALL seed - then you will pay or do something else.

No more

BC
 
Denny said:
The new corn is set for maximum production not necessarily maximum profits...
Bingo!! It's designed to make money for input suppliers not farmers or ranchers.
Round up ready seeds - bans on farmer retained seeds - Bad for producers, bad for humanity.
 
I used to plant triple stacked hybrids. but noticed that cows did poorly on the bt stalks. tis year I bought some triple stacked for $185 a bag and then wanted plain jane RR seed for the home place to run the cows on...$285 a bag!

I am now thinking I will go back to just conventional corn
 
I talked to a friend that works for a seed company in Hillboro Tx today about some Alfalfa seed. When he told me the price my mouth fail open. $300 per 50 lb bag and it only plants 2.5 ac. :shock: I don't see how you guys make it. The bad thing is I was just going to plant a small area to see how it would do. Now I don't think I am going to do it because if it did work I could afford to plant anything of any size. :roll:
 
New seeding grass mixture I planted last spring ran $80 an acre with fertilizer and the seed cover crop included.
 
Trinity man said:
I talked to a friend that works for a seed company in Hillboro Tx today about some Alfalfa seed. When he told me the price my mouth fail open. $300 per 50 lb bag and it only plants 2.5 ac. :shock: I don't see how you guys make it. The bad thing is I was just going to plant a small area to see how it would do. Now I don't think I am going to do it because if it did work I could afford to plant anything of any size. :roll:

I think that is to heavy a seeding rate. It depends if your irrigated or not but on dry land in this area we would use 2 to 3 lbs/ acre of straight Alfalfa.
 
dryland alfalfa here we plant 20 lbs/acre and hope for a germ of 17 lbs.

irrigated, we will up it to 25.
 

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