By Jeff Shaner
AgVenture Regional Product Manager
Let me begin with a disclaimer: I have no financial interest in commerce involving chicken eggs.
Yet I am a tad choosey about the eggs I eat. Those factory farm eggs have such flimsy shells and such pale yolks. I prefer the eggs my buddy provides for me: firm shells, dark rich yolks. Those aren’t the only benefits. In studies proven many times over, homegrown eggs can give you these compared to the competition:
- 25% more vitamin E
- 75% more Beta Carotene
- 20 times more Omega-3 fatty acids
- Half the cholesterol
I’m in! Give me those pretty and tasty local creations.
Photo courtesy of Wehmeyer Seed
AgVenture Independent Seed Company (ISC) owners are just as choosy about not only the genetics involved in the corn hybrids you purchase from them but also those individual components that serve to make one lot of seed superior to another.
How about instead of vitamins and fatty acids, you could observe (as I have) your ISC paying attention to abnormals, cold tests, and other independent samplings of seed quality that affect your potential productivity on the farm.
Two questions would be relevant now to answer.
- Does it matter?
- Does it matter if it matters?
The answer to #1 is…absolutely! The difference between the quality of two lots of seed of the same hybrid (both of which meet industry standards for commercial sale to the farmer) can exceed 12 bushels per acre in final yield*. That is HUGE!
If both lots of seed meet industry standards, question #2 comes into play. Your AgVenture Independent Seed Company has the power to reject a seed lot that doesn’t meet THEIR standards. AgVenture standards are higher than what the industry requires, and they are determined through multiple factors, not simply the warm germ.
This is just one way we at AgVenture help push your Average Production History ever upward.
Hey, while you’re in town today, pick yourself up a dozen eggs.
*Results of multi-year, multi-location AgVenture blind testing data.