Local Feed and Seed $$$

[Maddog66]

I’ve always had a very strong bias toward buying everything I possible can, locally. I’ve been this way my whole life and I’ve generally had the luxury of being “able” to pay more to support my neighbors - so to speak.

But the tiny Feed and Seed in my adopted community at my hunting farm seems to be taking things a bit far. Don’t get me wrong, I love visiting the place. They like me and I like them…..I’ve gotten to know them over the last 5 years of food plotting my land. I probably spend $1500/year there on seed, fertilizer, lime, and odds-n-ends. They give me free advice and horrible coffee and I’m not going stop going there no matter what.

But good lord are their prices high! A couple of examples might be …….50# of rye seed for $46…….or a 2 gallon jug of 41% glyphosate for $160…….or 50# bags of 19-19-19 fertilizer for $42.

I know for a fact I can get some of those things, and many others, for around 1/2 or even less than that in a bigger community not too far away.

Where do you draw the line between buying locally and not feeling a little like a tourist sheep to be fleeced?

 

[SwampCat]

You draw the line when the prices get that high. Ridiculous

 

[Hoytvectrix]

Ehhh, I'm willing to pay a couple of percent premium if it means supporting a local business.

Those prices you are seeing are atrocious.

 

[jsasker007]

Anything geared towards "foodplots/hunting" is when they bend you over.

 

[Baker]

I'm going thru this right now with my local store. I had them quote my fall planting combo of several clovers, wheat oats elbon, radish turnips and chicory. Roughly $7000 order. Gave the same detail to the folks at Green Cover seed. After paying $1100 in freight to Green Cover they were still cheaper than the shop Ive used for years.

Same thing happened on protein pellets this summer. Id been asking local shop for years to help with some special ingredients I was interested in. Nothing. Had another guy do all the work formulating exactly what I wanted. He got business. Material as I used 8 pallets of protein this summer.

I'm going to have a sit down with local owner this week being very frank about what's happening and what they have to do to get the big part of our business.

 

[Prairie Acres]

Those prices are really high, I would shop somewhere else. I try and buy from the local small farm store. They sell 50# bags of 14-14-14 for $19, 46-0-0 urea $21. I called around for winter wheat seed and everyone was around $24 for 50#.

 

[Maddog66]

They are atrocious and ridiculous……we agree! Heck, I’ll even stretch it to a 10% difference and will buy local most times for the convenience. But once we get talking 40-60%, like here, I’m not sure it makes sense in spite of being 5 miles vs 50 round trip.

I could talk to the owner, but probably not. I hate to do it but I probably need to start looking at the F&S as a spot for only “emergency” purchases, instead of my go-to.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

My local seed and feed (by home, not the land) went from $20 bags of rye to $30 this year and basically the same on common fertilizer. I wasn't that loyal to them but they were most convenient compared to co-op near home and co-op (who isn't open weekends) near the land. 12 minutes down the road the co-op still has $18 bags of rye and $20 triple 19.

$46 bags of rye is absurd.

 

[jsasker007]

Look at what some of those places charge for a single pound of rye. Single pound of anything for that matter.

 

[TreeDaddy]

My local seed and feed (by home, not the land) went from $20 bags of rye to $30 this year and basically the same on common fertilizer. I wasn't that loyal to them but they were most convenient compared to co-op near home and co-op (who isn't open weekends) near the land. 12 minutes down the road the co-op still has $18 bags of rye and $20 triple 19.

$46 bags of rye is absurd.

23$/50# elbow rye at East Texas seed

bill

 

[KY wild]

You are a better to locals than I am. I went local today and I bought triple 19 for $26 and wheat for $15 for 50 pounds and was satisfied but then drove 12 miles to rural King to save $20 bucks for Gly. rather than grab it at small local store

 

[SwampCat]

$10 for 50 lbs non cert wheat

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

$14.50 for 50# rye from my local seed store. They are a retailer for Albert Lea Seed so I’m guessing you could get it in Albert Lea for several % less.


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[Foggy47]

$14.50 for 50# rye from my local seed store. They are a retailer for Albert Lea Seed so I’m guessing you could get it in Albert Lea for several % less.


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Yeah.....maybe, but those seed houses try to protect their dealer network to some extent. Everyone has freight costs....so there is that. They need each other.

I usually spend some money at the local feed and seed store but I don't pay a huge premium for what they have. I may pay 15% more but that is about my limit. No way I will pay double for what I can get elsewhere. That is like stealing from your customers.....IMO.

It's hard to buy seed and fertilizer locally for me. Just not many local dealers here in the north woods. Selections are limited. Seeds at Fleet Farm are crazy....same at TSC IMO....and they typically sell Buck on the Bag seeds. Fertilizers are a bit of a different story. Cannot afford to ship fertilizers, lime or grains. Gotta find them local or pick them up on some road trip.

 

[SwampCat]

Local feed store who i have done business with for years has a high protein deer food for $18 bag. 75 miles away is the company that mixes and bags it and sell it by the 40 bag pallet for $460. That $260 difference was enough for me to drive 100 miles roundtrip further

 

[FarmerDan]

I am not a very popular guy. It's one of my character defects that I always want to be on the other side of a discussion. I have been on the seller side for seed and fertilizer. Pricing is a complicated process. Without addressing the "technology" seeds, sticking here to rye and wheat, historically the price of the seed for the commodity crop to be produce is 3x to 4x the market price of the commodity - bushels. Nearby (DEC) soft red winter wheat grain is listed at $5.78, Above someone priced SRW wheat seed at $24. It might seem like a big spread but there's a lot of processing, testing, transportation and selling expense associated with it.

Most small grain seeds are sourced locally no more than a couple hundred miles from where it will eventually end up in the ground. Rye is kind of a freaky crop to me. Sometimes in certain places there's no market for the grain. There may be some growers producing seed rye but if there's not a robust market then the seed will need to come from another region and that adds expense. To use the same wheat analogy for rye, the current spot price is somewhere between $6 and $8 per bushel. You can probably buy bin-run rye from a farmer for $10-$12 a bushel cash from your pocket to theirs. No guarantees, no testing, feed it, eat it or seed it. At the other end, rye grown for seed, certified or uncertified, variety not stated "should" sell for $24 - $32 a bushel. It's grown for seed, declared before planting. It is tested, cleaned, bagged and hauled to point-of-sale by the tractor-trailer load. If a dealer can't sell a full load then the pricing gets really squirrely.

Don't get me wrong. I like to save a buck, too. But sometimes just having someone local is worth the price. And sometime local management are idiots. But most times there are valid reasons for what you see.

It's a tough business. I don't see how the little local shop makes it. High prices - low prices. Damned if you do. Damned if you don't.

 

[Telemark]

I'll pay a premium of about 10 to 15 percent to buy locally or mom-n-pop on anything up to about $500. Beyond that, I feel like it's reckless spending. I'll happily pay double on something cheap if the convenience is worth a few bucks.

 

[Tree Spud]

But good lord are their prices high! A couple of examples might be …….50# of rye seed for $46…….or a 2 gallon jug of 41% glyphosate for $160…….or 50# bags of 19-19-19 fertilizer for $42.

Local feed mill rye at $18 per bushel ~ 55 #/bu.

Farm & Fleet 2.5 gal of Gly for $60.

 

[Maddog66]

WHAT ARE YOU TALKIN ABOUT FD? You are one of the MOST popular guys on here!!

Being a little crusty is a feature, not a bug. IMO.

In the end, I guess the only thing worse than paying too much at the local F&S, is when it closes down because we didn’t support it.