Seed shortage

Will they be a shortage of new wheat etc seed this harvest/ autumn . Should new seed be booked now ,had any prices ?

No but the trade will make stories up between them to create one to hike the prices. Just sow it out of your own shed and save yourself thousands of pounds and leave the trade to their own devices. They've sold less fert and chems this year because of the weather and now pushing stupidly expensive stewardship seeds to try and cover themselves.
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
Does the area of farm saved seed vary much each year? Not all farms are set up to home save. I doubt it will make much difference this year. Home savers will probably be in the same situation as the certified seed users.

I doubt there will be a huge shortage - the growers of seed tend to be on the kind of land that supports roots and long rotations to get a good break from cereals. They will have mostly got drilled up eventually. I suspect the seed trade is nervous of lower sales due to the weather, carry over stock, changed rotations caused by later harvests and SFI. Frankly, I'd be more nervous if I was selling autumn sown combinable break crop seed as those are the most vulnerable to SFI right now IMO.

Why else would the trade be pushing autumn seed sales now?? Falling commodity prices that underpin the base price for seed agreed with the seed growers not hedged by forward seed sales on the books?
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 115 38.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 115 38.3%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 42 14.0%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 6 2.0%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 5 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 17 5.7%

Expanded and improved Sustainable Farming Incentive offer for farmers published

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Expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive offer from July will give the sector a clear path forward and boost farm business resilience.

From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and The Rt Hon Sir Mark Spencer MP Published21 May 2024

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Full details of the expanded and improved Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer available to farmers from July have been published by the...
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