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Non-Tech : $2 or higher gas - Can ethanol make a comeback? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: richardred who wrote (541)	1/27/2006 12:58:36 PM
From: richardred	Respond to of 2801

Seed sellers planted at ag show By JIM GRANSBERY Of The Gazette Staff The search for diversity and more valuable crops is a constant continuum for a farmer or rancher trying to stay in business. "How much (cost) can he swallow and still survive?" asks Jerry Krenning, of Fromberg. That, succinctly, is the driving force that makes agriculturists continually look for a better, cheaper way of producing food and fiber. As it was in the beginning, and is now, it's about seeds: nature's produce or technology's design. Seed purveyors are scattered, like seeds, throughout the fourth Ag Technology Show under way at the Holiday Inn Trade Center through Saturday. Krenning has been selling Kussmaul Seeds for five years now, with corn high on his sales list. With plans for ethanol plants at Hardin and Greybull, Wyo., high-yielding corn varieties might become popular soon. "More money has to go back to the farmer," Krenning said. One way is to reduce fuel and fertilizer and herbicide costs. Using corn seeds designed by gene splicing, "you just open the bag and plant it," he said. Krenning said 95 percent of the seed he sells is "Roundup readym" which is resistant to the herbicide Roundup, thus opening a wider window for spraying. Additionally, the corn is resistant to corn borer and root worm. "Where we used to make four or five passes over a field to produce a crop, we can make one," with the combination of seed and no-till cultivation. And yields have improved from 20 tons per acre to a range of 25 to 33 tons, he said. Kussmaul Seeds is a family-owned company in Mount Hope, Wis., that has been selling in Montana for about 15 years. The company also produces an alfalfa seed that has doubled yield and longevity. That saves the farmer money, too, Krenning said. John Craft, who sells Rea Hybrids, a corn seed producer out of Aberdeen, S.D., would like to see the demand curve increase because of the proposal ethanol plants. "That would be great," he said. "It is not a savior for farmers but another option for a better cash crop." Too, it might encourage more cattle feeding because the byproduct from the distilling process makes a nutritional ingredient in feed rations, said Craft, who is based in Miles City. Not all seeds are for production; some provide grass cover on reclamation sites and forage for livestock. That is a focus of Wild Horse Seeds, of Havre. Brad Ruthkamp said he features seeds from WestBred of Bozeman and the varieties produce through Montana State University's Experiment Station at Bozeman and its satellite sites, one of which is near Havre. Grass seed from native species is in particular demand, he said, for the reclamation of oil/gas exploration and well sites. Through contacts along the Hi-Line, he harvests the seed from wherever it is found on private ground, he said. The product is also valuable for those planting grass on Conservation Reserve Program acres. The other half of his demand is for cereal grains and legumes. He has Austrian winter peas and chickpeas on his sales list. "We like to provide a little bit of everything and do a good job of it at the same time," Ruthkamp said. After working for McIntosh Seeds for 20 years, he bought the businesses in 2002. He is expanding to include forbs, wildflowers, and other specialty items as well as Canadian malt barley varieties, he said. billingsgazette.com