I'm experiencing the same price differences as Tiler.  Some actually with a bigger difference.  I had one herbicide that the local supplier was over 100 percent higher than my lowest bid elsewhere.  Crazy.  

We do like Tiler suggested.  We do our best to come up with the pesticides we're going to use for the year, in the quantities we're going to use.... and then give three or more suppliers the opportunity to bid on those pesticides.  I'm sure we're saving in the neighborhood of 25 to 30 percent by doing this.  

But I have to admit.... we are letting go of some service when we do this.  If I gave one supplier all of our business, we probably would get some free scouting and recommendations from their scouting results.  So we have to weigh this service against the lower costs of the pesticides.   

Personally, I think we're better off doing our own scouting.  The key being... "doing" the scouting.   I can't say we're better off doing the scouting if I don't have adequate time to do the scouting.  Obviously.  

If I'm utilizing "free" scouting from my supplier, I'm always going to have the question in the back of my mind of whether his or her recommendation has a bit of biased interest in selling me products that I might not truly need.  They may or may not be, but I'm always going to wonder.  Frankly, because of this concern, if I didn't have the time to do my own scouting..... I would rather hire and pay a crop consultant to do the work for me.  Especially if said consultant had a lot of knowledge and experience working with the crops I grow.


gordon