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Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

The Real Price of Ignoring Quality
Not only is Latham the best industry source for the latest technologies, our team exhaustively searches every avenue seeking the best genetics to go with these technologies. If a product has earned the right to be in a Latham bag, rest assured the seed is the “cream of the crop”.

Growers are still weighing the best options for spring. Facing high fertilizer prices and lower-than-expected commodity prices means some options, which may seem more appealing at the time, are actually poor choices in the long run. While it may be tempting to purchase seed purely on price alone, other factors should be taken into consideration. A issue of SeedWorld magazine provides a couple examples:
1. Buying an inexpensive, unproven corn seed could mean giving up 10 bushels in a crop at $3.50 per bushel. For illustration purposes, planting 32,000 corn seeds per acre at $87.50 per bag on 1,000 acres could result in a loss of $87,500.
2. The same scenario is true for soybeans. An 11 percent lower yielding soybean could mean a difference of up to 6.5 bushels less yield per acre. With soybeans near $9, that is a whopping $58.50 per acre each grower is giving up by not planting the highest yielding soybeans.
Someone once said that paying for quality means you only have to wince once. Fortunately with Latham, you don’t have to wince at all. The technology and performance record behind your investment, coupled with our agronomic consulting expertise and our Farm Plan financing access, assures a confident, satisfying experience from start to finish.
John Latham, President

January 16, 2009

Agronomics, Corn, Crop, Industry News, Season, Seed Technology, Soybeans, Spring, Tech Tuesday, Winter
Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Determining optimum plant population

In the past, optimum plant population was determined by increasing population each year to the point where the ear began to tip back. A corn plant has the ability to sense when it has enough nutrients and moisture to put grain on, so just looking at grain development was a good way to determine if plant populations were over the optimal line. After generations of using roughly the same seed, plant population was pretty nailed down.

To help adjust to the new plant population realities, we’ve ramped up our research to try to give Latham customers a more informed starting point. This growing season we’ll evaluate two triple-stack hybrids: one with more ear flex capability than the other. We’ll also be capturing the yield-ability across different soil types. We know that each soil type has inherent natural fertility and water holding capacity, which are two important components of yield when considering plant population. Many seed technology developers have also launched research into the plant population area, so we plan to also collaborate closely with those studies.

The goal of all this research and investigation is always the same: to help customers realize more profit per acre. That means we’re always considering the math of yield revenue minus input costs. The development of seed technology has made plant population one of the variables in that equation and, as with everything associated with high-tech products, Latham Hybrids will continue to invest in finding ways to use PPA to make our customers more money.

John Latham, President

June 28, 2008

Season, Spring
Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Seed Treatments Prove to be Good Investment in Cold, Wet Spring

Latham Hi‑Tech Hybrids’ practice of treating all of its triple-stack seeds with combination of Trilex™ fungicide and Poncho® insecticide proved its value during the recent cold, wet spring.

The cold, wet soil that dominated most of the Cornbelt meant the seed laid in the soil longer before germinating. That made for ideal conditions for a host of fungus and insects.

While the technology within the corn protects it from multiple threats once the plant is growing, the seeds are still vulnerable in their very early stages of development. Trilex offers a unique combination of two systemic fungicides to protect against a wide spectrum of threats including pythium, rhizoctonia, and early season phytophthora. Poncho delivers early season protection against wireworm, white grub, seed corn maggot, flea beetle, grape colaspis, chinch bug and black cutworm.

Poncho’s protection against wireworms, seed corn maggots and grubs especially proved invaluable this season when those pests were out in force. Poncho offers two-stage protection by putting a barrier around the seed to kill approaching insects, and also imbedding insecticide into the seed to kill any pests that manage to take a bite.

This year, when conditions really slowed down the growth of corn plants, Poncho’s two-pronged protection was incredibly important. By offering protection around the seed, and within the seedling itself, the seed-applied insecticide was really critical to give uniform, healthy stands.

Latham Hybrids has adopted the practice of using seed-applied fungicide and insecticide to help customers protect their high-tech seed investments. The treatments also make it possible to plant corn earlier in the spring, when it’s usually cooler and wetter, to capitalize on the yield potential of a longer growing season.

President John Latham makes a priority for our business to do everything we can to give farmers the best payback for the investment they’re making. Given market conditions and the value of the technology being built into seeds, the price of seed corn is going to continue to increase. Latham is determined to provide maximum protection for seeds to make sure those higher seed investments generate higher return.

Larry Sailer, Musings of a Pig Farmer

June 28, 2008

Agronomics, Disease, Season, Seed Treatment, Spring

Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

The Real Price of Ignoring Quality

Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Determining optimum plant population

Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Seed Treatments Prove to be Good Investment in Cold, Wet Spring