So, your looking to buy seed. You are aware that there is a seed food chain and that it starts with the actual growers and that many hands might touch your seed before you buy that pretty bag of monster blast buck brassica.
So, you know you want a to plant some sugar beets, some daikon radish and some 60 day maturity forage turnips. Here is my questions.
A. If you know there is only a handful of growers in the us/new zealand/canada of each of these products, would you buy these products direct from the grower or distributor and cut out the many other layers of hands that touch the product, even if it comes in a plain brown bag, minus a fancy name and packaging?
B. If you willing to pay more for the fancy name and bags, how much more are you willing to pay for that added value?
C. What gives you more confidence in fancy packaged seed verses plain packaged product?
I will and do go to our local Ag store and buy seeds to create my own mix or pure stand. Then there are times, when I will buy something like Imperial Whitetail Clover due to it being already inoculated and falling for their market hype.
Answers to your questions: A) Maybe. I would have to consider local availability, quantity issues and shipping costs.
B)Not much more. More quantity that I would plant, the more I would considered going to the source.
C)The marketing hype by the seller and the users that brag about how well they attract deer.
I have worked in the industry for almost a decade now and I understand that sponsors keep everything afloat and easily accessible to us. Pat can attest to that too. So it really comes down to a personal decision. I have killed deer over co-op seeded plants as well as Buck-On-Bag brands. But always pay attention to the seed tags, I won't buy any blends with any grass seed or blends with a high percentage of filler.
Some of the fancier stuff is superior to the ag stuff as well though. Eagle Seed soybeans will outgrow the normal ag stuff for forage and still produce a ton of pods for instance.
His question to me is....people are going to buy xyz product because..............................
My answer is "because it works" (think i saw that on a really interesting website recently)
So, since most radish, clover, alfalfas and wild life seed is grown by a small few producers, i wanted to know people's opinions on "because"
Thanks for your feedback....
In the future you will need to be licensed to buy restricted chemicals to tank mix your Rup with to control these weeds .
Too much of a good thing has once again created problems that will help empty your wallet
I don't mind Roundup but I cringe at genetically modified seed.
agreed ......... the days of cheap soybean food plots for the average nimrod deer hunter are numbered.
most deer hunters planting food plots dont have a clue about fertility, ag chemicals , seed,sprayer calibration and all that jaz ................... I worked in the ag chem business for 27 years and I LOL at most of the comments I read on deer forums about such things .
Deer porn stars are a poor place to ask for advice on seed , chemicals and spraying . They will absolutely advise you to use whatever product they are being paid to promote .
However, I consider myself to be an educated consumer. Most of the seed brands I've seen appear to me to be just hype. Certainly high quality packaging with good labeling will help any product. That's just human nature.
The businessman in me tells me that there's probably a space in this market for a company that can put out a high quality product that's tailor made for certain regions/states and a desired outcome (i.e. Winter Forage). I've got a buddy that owns a few hundred acres of Virginia Piedmont. That red clay soil isn't nearly as fertile as the stuff we have in Nebraska. I'll bet if a company put out a high quality website where somebody could enter soil test results and the desired outcome it shouldn't be too hard to put together semi-custom blends direct from the distributor. You could even provide live chat support with an agronomist to help determine the customers needs. Put all of the marketing/packaging on the website and send the seeds to them in a brown bag.
Kuiu's done great things by skipping the retail space and selling very high end products to the end user. I could see the same thing happening in this space. It may exist already for all I know, I've never bothered to look.
You thinking about something like this already Nutritionist?
This year is my second food plot. Last year I planted about 1/3 acre with "Fancy Bag" brassicas, they grew great and the mule deer loved them. This year I worked up another 2/3 plus for a total of just over an acre that snakes along a ravine between mature forest and poplar regen. This ground has never had anything but trees on it. I talked to a friend that spent 35 years here on the government experimental farm and his advice was to just plant it and see. They never limed on the farm because local farmers were not going to either so they wanted to help under the prevailing conditions.
So now I have planted three different mixes of Rack Stacker on 2/3's and a Bio Logic New Zealand brassica mix on a newly worked 1/3.
Why did I pay the premium for the "fancy Bag" seed? Pretty simple. I can research other people's experience with that particular seed and brand name where as I am just rolling the dice with cheaper "bulk buy".
I'm taking Nutritionist's advice and treating these plots as a learning experience and then I too can offer my opinion on the brand name to other info seekers.
With nothing to go on but other user's advice, I'll follow the crowd with what worked for most. If some one [ like Nutritionist ] offered seed packages at a discount because of a better marketing model, then I would investigate the same way and buy based on positive buyer reports.
As consumers we have the ability to punish or reward service or product suppliers and it can be swift and sure with today's instant media, such as this site.
Do I pay extra for the bag with the big buck on the front? Yep, but they have a recognizable name to maintain and for the neophyte there is some comfort in knowing that.
My whole career as a consultant, i always preferred to buy from or recommend people buy from higher up on the food chains. Cutting out layers of middle men saved myself and accounts money.
In the wildlife industry there seems to be a preference of fancy bags and names over sound science and quality products and that puzzles the heck out of me, but maybe that's why i use to run up the silo, every time a feed salesman came walking through the barn door.
So, i believe there is a time and place for everything. But also there are many things i'd love to share with people to help educate but i'd rather not bash or trash some of the dishonest companies in the industry but promote those who truly do things the right way and who are out to help all of us.
So, a few years ago i did a 4 company test plot, and one of the most popular companies that in the industry is known as "the 50-50 company" turned out to be exactly as the seed tag showed me. The poorest seed of the lot. That orange bagged seed company i'd love to share stories of why i couldn't ethically sell it to my client base.... Tag reading 101 should help all of us when deciding to buy seed, no matter if it's fancy bag xyz or brown bag seed pdq...
If you don't want to bash and trash the "dishonest" ones at least share the ones that you believe are good to deal with.
Reckon some guys just like to fuss.
I am majorly adhd (why i am at times vague and hard to follow) and a farm boy. I have stumbled onto some of the most intelligent researchers, agronomists and nutritionists in the world.
I just love helping people and i hope i never rub anyone the wrong way. I am not always the world's best communicator because of my adhd.
I am always budget conscious, out of necessity. My $12 a bag Laredo forage beans I planted this year have done as well as any beans I have ever planted.
I think with five acres planted next year and some cheap grass herbicide to control foxtail, I will have a very inexpensive summer crop available. Then when they dry out I will broadcast in varying mixtures of rye, oats, brassica, radishes, etc. the beans hopefully will eliminate some of my fertilizer requirements for the fall seedlings. I plan on this being a regular approach.
It is cheap, but deer and other wildlife readily use it. It is not fancy, nor will it ever be on a magazine cover. Yet,I am am of the mindset that in heavy agricultural areas like the Midwest it is near impossible to improve the health, weight etc. to any measurable degree with a free range herd. Most of our plotting serves to attract and hold deer by making our properties just a little more attractive than surrounding ones. I believe the same of even high protein feeders. Deer are browsers and given proper weather conditions that allow for quality native browse, I think most studies have occluded there are minimum benefits with this approach when considering cost.