"Hay growers should line up the seed they'll need this year
immediately." That's the advice of Paul Baumer, president of
Cal-West Seeds, Woodland, CA. "Growers who wait to buy seed
until the day they need it will have to plant their second or
third choices or settle for a lower-yielding seed blend or older
materials," says Baumer, who also heads the Certified Alfalfa
Seed Council. His call for action stems from a worldwide seed
shortage that's been building for the past couple of years.
Baumer's comments apply mainly to seed of non-dormant varieties
grown in the Southwest. Most industry experts say supplies of
dormant varieties should be adequate, although some companies
won't have enough seed of their most popular varieties. Look for
small price increases. "We've increased our prices, and I think
the whole industry has," says Bruce Ceranske, general manager of
W-L Research, Evansville, WI. "Growers charged us more to grow
seed, so we have to raise prices to accommodate those
increases." In the Pacific Northw