Seed delearship gears up for spring planting season
ELK MOUND - The Elk Mound Seed staff is preparing for the upcoming planting season with pallets and bulk seed arriving weekly.
“This time of year our warehouse space can become a daily challenge,” said warehouse manager Bruce McIiquham. “Seed is coming and going nearly every day.”
Elk Mound Seed has two warehouses that can hold approximately 30-35 semi-loads of seed combined.
“It can be like a game of Tetris at times,” Mcliquham jokingly said, “organizing our warehouse so we can find specific seed for orders helps everyone when we get really busy.”
Bulk storage of small grains and peas allows Elk Mound Seed to save on warehouse space and gives them the ability to bag the product in a timely manner.
Damaged alfalfa fields
With the unseasonable warm late February and cold early March, with little or no snow cover in some areas, many farmers are concerned about winterkill in their alfalfa stands.
“We’ve had a lot of calls and discussion about winterkill,” said Mike Zutter, owner of Elk Mound Seed. “We are being proactive and making sure we have an ample supply of small grains, pea blends and ryegrass, species that can be used for emergency feed needs.”
Soybean and Seed corn sales
Elk Mound Seed’s soybeans sales have jumped year-over-year by offering a price competitive Roundup Ready 1 soybean for the 2017 planting season. Additionally, the sale of Biogene brand soybeans, which have stood out in the UW-Wisconsin State trials the past two years, has added to the increase in soybean sales.
“The performance of the Biogene soybeans varieties in the UW Trials and the excellent yields we’ve heard from our customers are beginning to give these soybeans a name in this area,” said agronomist Dave Balko. “Seed supply has been adequate to this point, but we anticipate a lot of in-season planting decisions as we know a lot of farmers still haven’t made their seed purchases.”
Seed corn sales have been good at Elk Mound Seed with the demand of conventional and organic seed increasing. The large cost savings of conventional corn coupled with the same yield potential as transgenic corn, has many growers sharpening the pencil to see if it will work on their farm.
“Farmers can still get top notch yields with conventional seed corn,” Balko explained. “Traited seed corn protects your yield, it doesn’t enhance the yield potential.”
A full-line seed company, Elk Mound Seed offers everything a farmer would sow. Elk Mound Seed is a family owned, locally operated seed business located in Elk Mound, WI.