Crop problems australia

[wmoebis]

That would be interesting. The seed Co's share of cost and ROI compared to farmers share and ROI. And the break down on how that is arrived at.

[fjlip]

The whole supply chain profits and we all know MORE than farmers that take the RISKS, we should NOT have check offs! Let the rest fund research that makes them more money, I get SFA ROI.

[bucket]

Automatic check offs from a producer grain cheque but 120 days after the producer requests it back.

I wish all these groups would ask for the money and wait 120 days for the request to be processed at my farm.

For instance the wgrf received 70 million from a freight adjustment a few years ago. With a 20:1 roi that would be a 1.5 billion return to the farmers.

In 2010 the unseeded benefit only cost all levels of government a billion dollars to keep farmers in business for another year due to excess rain.

Just some perspective on the value of money.

[dave4441]

Give me a break.

[bucket]

I don't think the big farms benefit either. They probably buy seed and dedicate land to grow seed to make the change.

They to have to be careful, changing to an unproven seed could be a disaster.

[CptnObvious]

I agree that a 20:1 ROI seems a tad optimistic. That is the number arrived at by Ag Ec prof Dr Richard Grey, U of S. It reflects increased yield, disease resistance, lower agronomic costs, greater value( protein, flour yield) to the buyer, etc.
fjlip made a very valid point that the benefit does not always come back to we farmers. I would press all commissions and depts. of ag to make sure to opt for public plant breeding. It is far better that farmers own the new varieties and control the direction of research than for corporations to do so. The federal plan seems to be to move to completely private funding and control. If that happens we will not be able to plant a registered variety that does not have a corporate patent on it or isn't linked to a patented herbicide.