For the nearly 200 seed growers gathered at the Saskatoon Inn for their annual meeting last week, one question was probably uppermost on their minds.
Who among them would be back next year?
As the seed industry goes through revolutionary changes fueled by science and politics, seed growers find themselves on the front lines.
There are bound to be casualties, said Barry Campbell, president of the Saskatchewan Seed Growers Association.
“It’s a difficult thing, to realize that we won’t need all the growers that we have now,” he said in an interview during the association’s meeting. “How do you tell someone that they have to make these tough choices?”
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The problem is that new seed varieties, which increasingly are developed and owned by large private companies, are less available to so-called independent seed growers, who have traditionally made up the bulk of the industry.
Government spending cuts have led to a sharp reduction in publicly funded plant breeding, a system that developed new varieties and essentially gave growers the seed to distribute to farmers.
Now private companies want to recover the cost of research so they tender out their seed lines to those who can afford them.
“The question is, can independents survive without attaching themselves to a company with a line of seed products,” said Campbell, like Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, Proven Seeds or Value Added Seeds.
Case in point
The harsh reality facing the industry was driven home to many last fall, when well-known Alberta seed grower Don Ostergard, a former president of the Canadian Seed Growers Association, dropped out of the retail seed business.
Speaking at last week’s convention, he told the audience that his operation was spread too thin and so he abandoned the retail business to concentrate on running his commercial farm and growing pedigreed seed for wholesale distribution.
He said with the proliferation of new varieties, he found after 32 years in the business that his operation was basically buying seed from other suppliers for resale to farmers.
“What difference was there between us and Alberta Wheat Pool?” said Ostergard.
He added that since he dropped out of the business last September, 13 other independently owned farm supply outlets in Alberta have been bought, nine by large grain companies and four by larger independents.
“I had expected it to happen, but not this fast,” he said.
Ron DePauw, a plant breeder from the Agriculture Canada research centre at Swift Current, told the seed growers that the days of all seed growers having equal access to all varieties are over, and they will have to look to partnerships and alliances to stay in business, and perhaps get more involved in seed processing. But there will always be an important role for individual seed growers.
Fellow plant breeder Brian Rossnagel, of the University of Saskatchewan, delivered a similar message, saying seed growers should look at all their options and forget the traditional dichotomy between grower and seed company.
“Every one of you has the opportunity to obtain varieties from suppliers or be your own plant breeder or hire your own plant breeder or go through the system,” he said. “Or the other route is to become growers for other organizations who have the ability to do things in an efficient manner.”
As for the future of “independents,” Ostergard said there will be limited opportunities for the “little guy” selling publicly funded cereals as a sideline, with a narrow customer base, and for dealers who aren’t growers but act as middlemen franchise dealers for the big companies.
“And there will always be a need for growers,” he said. “Nobody can do this job cheaper or better than the people who are doing it right now and that means you and me.”
