Seed Market Report

Who are these people, you ask? Turfseed growers, of course.

This year hasn’t been the best for growers and sellers of turfseed. The pleasant winter meant less winter kill of turf across the country, and the unseasonably wet April and May in the Pacific Northwest translated into problems for the turfseed crop in the ground.

Regardless of the company visited, all are seeing or at least anticipating disappointing seed yields that fail to meet the expected levels of production. Can you blame these companies then for eagerly anticipating climatic conditions better suited to their product?

Following is a rundown of the growers’ general opinion of this year’s turfseed crop:

THE FESCUES. “The tall fescue is coming in lighter than anticipated, but it’s difficult to know what the total crop will be because there’s been an increase in the amount of acres planted with tall fescue this year,” observed Keith Laxton, vice president of operations, Seed Research of Oregon, Corvallis, Ore. “Overall, the supply of turf-type tall fescue will probably be down 10 to 15 percent from last year.”

Hard fescues, in particular, appear to present a problem crop.

“We’ll have less of a crop of hard fescues than we did last year, and last year was pretty horrible,” acknowledged Scott Harer, sales and marketing representative, Advanta Seeds Pacific, Albany, Ore. “No one can figure out what this disease is that has been in the fields for the last three or four years on most hard fescues. I don’t know what the future holds for this species, but companies may take production to other areas.”

Laxton also noted struggles with hard fescues. “Hard fescues are down dramatically from what we would consider an average yield, but we expected that,” he explained. “We had terrible yields last year, and we’re looking at the same fields this year, some of which are getting pretty old. As a result, we’ve seen a lot of hard fescue acres planted over to perennial ryegrass.”

PERENNIAL RYEGRASSES. “Our projections are down about 15 percent from last year for the perennial ryegrasses,” commented Tom Stanley, marketing manager, Turf Seed, Hubbard, Ore. Here, the problem may have been the spring weather.

“The fields were laid flat by the rains from April on, and that may have resulted in poor pollination,” Stanley commented. “Otherwise, these fields looked awful lush, so some of the plant’s energy may have gone into the leaves instead of the seed. Turfgrass needs to feel threatened or stressed so that it produces seed as a method of survival, but that wasn’t necessary here this year.”

“We’re seeing yields all over the board on ryegrasses, but I expect most of them will be down 10 to 20 percent,” added Harer.

“Demand may be off a little bit for perennial ryegrass, but that’s a pretty stable market,” commented Laxton. “What I do think we’ll begin to see with perennial ryegrass, though, is that very high quality seed will demand a little higher cost over lesser quality seed as the amount of the high quality perennial ryegrass seed falls. There are just too many contaminants like poa annua and poa trivialis throughout the growing area.”

Despite a down harvest, peren-nial ryegrass availability shouldn’t be a problem for contractors.

“There’s quite a bit of seed in the pipeline for the fall,” noted Bob Richardson, general manager, Lofts/Great Western, Albany, Ore. “Plus, the acreages on perennial ryegrass, along with tall fescue, have gotten up to almost record levels, which should negate the poor crop.”

LOOKING AHEAD. Growers remain optimistic that contractor demands for turfseed will bounce back after a slow end to 1997 and beginning to 1998, especially if the long-term weather forecasts hold true.

“This wasn’t a great spring anywhere in the country,” commented Harer. “We only had about 5 percent of the country showing increased movement of turfseed over 1997, so there’s plenty of inventory of most species and varieties available for this fall.”

Once El Nino’s rains finally stopped pounding the country, oppressive heat and humidity settled in for the summer.

“Two months ago, I thought we’d carry over more seed than we have in a few years,” admitted Laxton. “Now, we’re seeing the inventory move out pretty well because we’re seeing some horrendous weather for keeping grass alive.”

"We’ve got reports of lawns burning up across the country, which bodes well for seed demand,” recognized Stanley. “And while this spring was poor due to a lack of winter kill, the forecast is for a cold winter this year, which should help demand.”

“The demand will be the key as to what happens to prices in the market,” concluded Harer. “Our distributors are hoping for a strong fall since so much work wasn’t done this spring. That could start to push prices up a little bit going into next spring.”