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1999 Seed Pricing and Availability
Seed availability and pricing is variable this year by species. Overall, at least for now, there has been about a 15% reduction in pricing over last year on mixes. There is a limited amount of single species seed available with the exception of switchgrass and sideoats grama, however mixes will be in reasonable supply. This is primarily due to the fact that many expired CRP fields were harvested this year which were predominantly planted to mixtures. Switchgrass is in huge supply and prices are nearly as low as pre-CRP. Four to $6 per PLS pound for switchgrass is common. Sideoats grama is
also in good supply and prices look as though they will continue to hold through early next year. Expect sideoats to creep up as spring planting draws nearer. Little bluestem is in short supply. Native little blue is particularly poor quality and unfortunately varietal little blue production isn't enough to cover demand. Little bluestem will remain high through the year. Big bluestem, in general produced a lot of bulk seed but PLS was low. There is no doubt it will go up as demand increases at spring planting. Indiangrass is probably the shortest in supply. Prices will remain high through the season. Because there was a lot of big blue harvested relative to indiangrass, look for mixes to be built around big blue.
All in all the good news is prices are generally lower than last year. Don't look for them to remain down though. I expect they will inch up during the selling season and by late this winter or early this spring be nearly as high as last spring. It looks as though current CRP sign up will continue demand for at least one more year but as with past CRP affected prices, we'll probably see another 15 to 20% decline next year.
A word of warning, as the appeal of "easy" money from the harvest of native grass seed motivated a lot of inexperienced temporary seed producers to harvest their own seed for sale and due to their lack of understanding of how to store it, there is a considerable amount of spoiled, junk seed out there. Be sure of what you are buying. Insist on a test and if it smells musty or moldy, regardless of the test, refuse to buy.
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