2016 Harvest Update
When inventories at both the production and distribution tiers are low going into new crop, you just know that there are going to be challenges. This has been the case this year, particularly with annual ryegrass, orchardgrass, and KY-31 tall fescue. Outside the Valley, Kentucky bluegrass producers are in the same boat. Here’s how that has affected seed movement and pricing:
- Annual ryegrass - Shipping demands initially exceeded available seed. While we hoped that cleaning would catch up to shipping, it simply has not happened. We are now into September and are still not able to ship ryegrass as easily as we’d like. Furthermore, obtaining seed for new business is nearly as painful as going to the dentist. The other noticeable effect is that the price continues to increase. Surely, it will get better. Hopefully soon.
- Orchardgrass - Somewhat contrary to our early observations in July, orchardgrass has tracked similar to annual ryegrass, except with even a greater tightness. There are relatively few orchardgrass growers, and while they understand the need to get their seed cleaned in order to market, they have other pressures to clean other crops. Oftentimes, including this year, the orchardgrass takes a back seat in the cleaning lines. This year, we are really feeling the lack of available inventory. This too, has moved the pricing up. While questions of how much orchardgrass will be available for spring may be on many a mind, we are quite frankly just looking at how we can best take care of fall needs right now.
- KY-31 tall fescue - Shipments have been very good on KY-31. Good enough so that any carryover was quickly eliminated and replaced with lines waiting seed off the cleaner. It too, has become very difficult to buy and ship non-contracted seed, as well as contracted seed not yet cleaned.
Signet - our newest turf perennial ryegrass
This fall brings a new addition to our proprietary offers - Signet turf-type perennial ryegrass selected for improved grey leaf spot resistance and improved drought tolerance. Signet was selected for a semi-prostrate growth habit, medium dark green color and improved resistance to gray leaf spot, brown patch, leaf spot, crown rust, and stem rust.
The variety has also shown improved drought tolerance. It has been entered into the 2016 NTEP. Prior data is available from Rutgers and the CTBT testing locations including CT, IL, KY, MD, MN, NC, NJ, OR, & VA. Data should be available soon on our website.
New crop seed should be available later this month. Contact us now if you wish to learn more or want to secure seed for this fall and next spring.
Taking Care of the Little Guy - Ordering Direct
One of the ongoing challenges with offering premium products, is actually providing them to end-user who can’t find them locally. Each end use is vitally important, as our sales are truly an aggregate of all individual sales. since we do not sell direct, we need these sales to go through our distributors and their dealers. To this end, we have implemented additional dealer locator tools for a number of our products including our Titan tall fescues, Cajun tall fescue, Persist orchardgrass, Renovation clover, Attain ryegrass, and Big Boss ryegrass. If you carry any of these products, we can add your dealers to our database and drive more business directly to you.
Secondarily, we know that a number of you don’t mind selling and shipping direct. Some of you even have online stores. Would you like to service some of these end-users? Would you like us to refer end-users to your website or office? If so, please let us know by sending an email.