As crop prices fall, farmers focus on seeds

U.S. farmers, bogged down in one of their toughest patches in years, are looking for a little magic—in seeds. Some are returning to the old-fashioned variety, bred without genetic engineering, and back in fashion as farmers strive to save money following three straight years of falling prices for major crops like corn and soybeans.  Others, meanwhile, are joining new subscriber-based services that collect seed and other detailed crop-related data from their farmer members, who then use the data to determine which seeds and pesticides will work best on their fields and at the fairest price. The plunge in crop prices—corn has roughly halved since the start of 2013, while soybeans have fallen by one-third—has chipped away at farmers’ financial cushions and led many to re-examine their costs across the board. “People are sharpening their pencils,” says Brian Marshall, who farms about 4,600 acres of corn, soybeans and wheat near Maysville, Mo. “When corn was double what it is now, and soybeans were a lot better than what they are today, you didn’t have to be as good with a calculator.”