CropLife 100: Entering A New Seed Era

Among all the categories of crop inputs and services that make up the CropLife 100, seed was the big winner during 2014. While crop protection product and custom application sales were up in the high single-digit range and fertilizer revenues were down, the seed category managed to increase in value more than $500 million. According to the 2014 CropLife 100 survey, seed revenues for the nation’s top ag retailers topped $4.5 billion, an impressive 13% increase from 2013. The seed category now holds a 15% share of the crop inputs/services market among CropLife 100 retailers, up 1% from the previous year.

Furthermore, looking forward, the news for the seed category has the potential to get a lot better as the calendar turns to 2015. Earlier this fall, Dow AgroSciences received the final regulatory sign-off on its new 2,4-D resistant cropping system Enlist. Likewise, dicamba-resistant cropping systems are likely to appear as well during 2015. Both of these new seed/crop protection product methods should help provide growers with additional tools to combat the growing problem of weeds that have grown resistant to popular herbicides such as glyphosate.

“It is important to note that herbicide-tolerant crops have enabled great advances in soil conservation and carbon sequestration,” said Mark Peterson, global leader for the Enlist system for Dow, speaking at the 2014 Commodity Classic show. “Having farmers go back to widespread tillage to control weeds will negate those environmental advances.”

Wanting More Options

Of course, these new cropping systems will begin with the seeds, and many ag retailers can apparently hardly wait for these varieties to begin hitting the market. According to the 2014 CropLife 100 survey, 79% of the nation’s top ag retailers will definitely or probably begin stocking new 2,4-D- and dicamba-tolerant seeds in their warehouses once they become available. Another 11% say they “probably will not” carry the seeds in their operations, but haven’t definitely made up their minds just yet.

Given how ag retailers generally feel about biotech seeds, this level of desire for new offerings shouldn’t come as a big surprise. Since they first were introduced back during the mid-1990s, biotech seed sales at the nation’s top ag retailers have tended to easily outpace their traditional bred cousins by a significant margin. This trend continued during 2014, when 56% of CropLife 100 survey respondents said their biotech seed sales grew 1% to more than 5% during the year. In contrast, only 31% of CropLife 100 ag retailers said their traditional seed sales were up by this same amount.