Midsouth growers having trouble getting corn hybrids they want for 2007

Midsouth farmers and consultants continue to tell us that certain corn hybrids won't be available in sufficient quantities to fill orders. Growers in some cases placed orders months ago, only to be told later that only about 50% of the seed they wanted would be supplied to them.

"One dealer rep told me that the situation is almost laughable," one farmer said recently. "His company was told that some seed in a particular hybrid had been freed up. The quantity was about a dozen bags. That was for his entire company, which has multiple locations. It was hardly enough seed to fool with for one rep, and there was no way to divide it up among all the customers who requested it."

The push to plant more corn acres in the region accounts for the shortages. Shortages either didn't exist or weren't as dire in areas like Kentucky and Virginia where more corn is produced.

Better known hybrids placing well in production trials tended to be the first to go, several people noted.