As farmers start making their seed decisions for 2018 they might want to read a report by Farmers Business Network on seed relabeling. FBN’s Co-Founder Charles Baron says it’s a routine practice in the industry where seed companies label the same seeds under multiple brands with dramatically different prices. He says their members initially cooperated in their study this spring by taking pictures of the labels on their seed bags and analysis continues through the season. One of the major findings was that many farmers are overpaying for the same seed.

He says they also have examples where major brands were sold by major retailers, with a considerable mark-up over smaller outlets.

There were also some farmers that were inadvertently planting the same genetics from two different brands, thinking they were spreading out the genetic risk on their farm. So now, FBN runs their member’s tags to search for duplicates.

A full copy of the seed relabeling report is available on the FBN website.

https://soundcloud.com/wnax-radio/charles-baron-on-seed-relabeling