SMKX - 9/4/2015 06:56

I am going to probably ruffle a feather or two, but going to say it

you and the seed guys are looking at this all wrong.

a trait system, especially a herbicide trait system shouldn't be the first thing you focus on.

by you immediately asking if they had LL tells me you are focused on the wrong thing.

I learned many years ago that we were leaving a lot of bean yield on the table. by focusing on picking the right beans, and sometimes it takes more than one company, along with tweaking fertility and some management things we have gone from raising 30-45 bushel beans to 45-65 bushel beans. notice I didn't say a thing about weed control

you need to be focused on beans that agronomically fit and yield on your farm, and have confidence that the guy or gal selling and supporting those beans know what they are talking about.

now if that bean happens to be LL, great.

but most that flip to LL do it for the perceived easy button on weed control. and they don't care about anything else.

as for weed control and all that other stuff you rattled off. I wont comment on that because all trait systems have their +/-'s.

I will say this, I can still do a RR system cheaper than a LL system (chem and seed). That's a full blown RR system with two shots of residuals. And I would be willing to put my fields up against any LL field. They are as clean or cleaner.

And just in case you where wondering. I look at several beans every year that have the LL trait. When they can show me more yield and fit I will bite. That has yet to happen

and final thought to tie this whole seed salesman thing back. I frankly don't trust many of the guys selling LL. Because the first two things out of their mouth is I can sell you cheap beans and control your weeds. Well I don't need help controlling weeds, I have that figured out. And while cheap beans sounds nice, I want agronomic fit and yield first, we can talk price later.