KDSN RADIO News
Iowa’s 2024 floods spell a shortage of spring seeds for farmers
Seed supply shortages could cause problems for farmers in Iowa this spring.
Flooding early in the season last spring devastated parts of southern Minnesota and northwestern Iowa, and Casey Staloch, with Albert Lea Seed Company in Minnesota, says seed production really suffered.
“Just because we had too much water early and not enough late, and then also with our sales being up on the conventional side,” Staloch says, “yeah, we are getting sold out of a lot of numbers right now.”
Staloch says there are other seed options if a farmer can’t get access to their first choice.
“You can change some maturities, different things like that. But some of these companies where sales are down now, we’re coming them back in and lowering their prices in-season to try to get rid of some seed,” he says. “So I think there’s a lot of seed to be bought yet, even only a month out.”
Heavy rains last spring led to historic flooding in northwest Iowa, in communities including Rock Valley, Sioux Rapids, and Spencer, impacting hundreds of homes and thousands of residents.
(Thanks to Minnesota News Network)
