Buying seed timing

[Jim Meade / Iowa City]

I'd like the experience and opinion of those of you who usually buy seed early.

I usually like to wait till the universtiy yield trials come out and then more or less decide what I want and pay for it right after the first of the year.  I try to not move my buying and selling between years too much because it makes taxes harder to smooth out.

Anyway, I'm toying with the idea of buying seed early.  If I do that, I'd still like to pay for it in January, or is that possible?  Is it worth it to borrow some money to buy the seed you want early in the fall?

Anyway, in light of the idea that we might all be planting more corn acres, I was interested in getting your experience and ideas on the good and bad points of buying and paying for seed at harvest rather than at New Year.

[mvp farms]

I'm thinking about locking in some seed now too.  Frankly the pictures of ears that I am seeing is scaring me into it!

[steeringwheelholder]

My seed dealer called me this morning and said to order plenty of seed and try to commit to the varieties I want without changing. Said seed will be in short supply and rationing of popular numbers will be a certainty.

[nwobcw]

   Pre paying seed usually isn't worth it here if you borrow to do it.  Only 28N can be pre bought and not take delivery.  Other fertilizer is buy and take.  The best deal on pre pay here is on chemicals.  I usually do this between Christmas and New Years to even things out.  I do have a new variety of bean seed ordered that was the top yielder here last year and in very short supply this year.  No discounts were offered when I placed the order last month.

[Nebrfarmr]

My dealer offers a 'booking' discount, for early orders.  For example, if I talk to him in September, and confirm that I would like to purchase a certain number of bags of seed, I get another $5 a bag off, and any discounts are locked in until January 15th.

I don't have to know exactly which varieties I will be ordering at the time, although they would like a general idea if possible.  The only downside is that if I order 20 bags, and only take 15, I lose that $5 a bag, although I still get all the other discounts. 
However, I have found that you can work it the other way.  Say you book 20 bags, and get the $5 discount.  If I tell my dealer I'd sure take 25 bags, if I could get the $5 off on the extra 5 bags, he aways seems to do it.

Usually what happens is the dealer calls me in September, asks if I want the same number of bags booked as last year, and then in November sometimes, he calls back for confirmation, and to get down which varieties I want.  I think I then get an extra 1% discont on top of everything else if I order by December 15th, otherwise the check is due Jan 15th to get all the other discounts, and every month after that the price goes up a little.

[Nebrfarmr]

Really? 
Where I am, I got a discount of 10% by paying by January 15th instead of June 15th. Unless you are paying close to 20% interest on the money, it makes no sense NOT to order early, and pre-pay.

[wt510151]

Some seed companies will loan you money for the purchase at a decent interest rate, but lower early selection discount rate. As with most companies, there will be discounts for quantity too. Pays me to check with all brands now to get the best deal for the right seed. If you go the route of borrowing from the seed company, the cash basis seed purchase would still be considered same year.

[Pupdaddy]

I was just at my annual dealer meeting yesterday, and the first thing out of the seed production manager's mouth was, "Get your seed ordered early". He said with the green snap problems...the floods down around Cairo, Ill. and generally bad weather in other seed growing areas...that there would be shortages on lots of the best varieties. One of their growers called up and told them to expect only 35% of the production he had planned on having for them. The production manager said there will be more seed grown in South America this year than ever before...but getting it harvested and up here on time is a real nightmare.

As far as paying for seed early...my company starts out in August with 10% discount, and an 8 dollar per unit early order discount on corn..4 dollar on soybean early order discount. This only lasts till Nov. 15th...and the early pay discount drops one percent per month. Even if I don't see any results from university tests...I pay for and order seed in August. If I don't have the seed that happens to have the best potential..I can always switch varieties later on...provided they're not sold out before I switch.

[Blacksandfarmer]

Pup I think some of these seed dealers are just trying to scare guys a little. Im pretty sure my region grows more seed corn than anywhere in the world (literally) and things look good. Most of the seed is grown west of my location in the Constantine/ Mendon area and they received a lot of rain this summer, plus all seed corn is irrigated and on sandy ground so flooding is not an issue. Take a look at your seed corns origin and I bet it will say MI or IN...... That is if its Pioneer, Dekalb or a branch there of.

[nwobcw]

    Pioneer has a seed growing area and seed processing plant west of Bowling Green Ohio along Rt. 6.