Take note of new Dekalb seed sizes

August 2015

From time to time any company needs to look at their offerings in the market to see where they can improve and recently Monsanto decided to reduce the number of seed sizes in the DEKALB maize range.

The number of seed sizes available in the DEKALB brand range will be reduced from 15 to 8 for the next planting season.

The seed sizes that will be available for the 2015/16 planting season will be the following:

• SF – small flat
• SR – small round
• MF – medium flat
• MR – medium round
• LF – large flat
• LR – large round
• XF – PFL or extra large flat
• XR – extra large round

Farmers will benefit from the new reduced number of seed sizes as larger seed volumes per seed size will be available, ensuring that clients will have a very good opportunity to get the seed size that was ordered.

For Monsanto it will mean easier warehouse management and optimisation of warehouse space. Seed quality testing is a very laborious activity and the reduction in seed sizes will also have an impact on the number of samples needed for testing in the laboratories. This will have a positive effect on sample turnaround time and results availability.

But this decision was not taken lightly. In 2009 Monsanto embarked on a research project to determine the plantability of the different seed sizes available in the DEKALB brand. A Metermax planter simulator was used in the laboratory to test the accuracy of single seed placements (singulation) on three planter types namely on finger planters, vacuum planters and positive air planters. The results of the simulations showed that there was very little difference between the accuracy of the different seed sizes.

Article submitted by Magda du Toit, Corporate Communication Manager, Monsanto SS Africa.
For more information, send an email to magda.du.toit@monsanto.com.

Publication: August 2015

Section: Pula/Imvula