Amherst WI | farmerrob - 7/28/2007 21:36
I have been reading the post below about Big M's marketing and wether it is price fixing or not. This got me to wondering just what were the companies they owned. I looked up ASI which gave a list of companies they own. This got me to wondering how does this effect test plots and field trials? Market share usually doesn't dictate what goes in a plot here but usually "x" number of entries allowed per company. So if say for what ever the reason Big M felt it was necessary to win our county plot couldn't they just enter a different hybrid or two from each company to get numerous entries into the plot to win it? I know not all of the ASI companies are everywhere but there are 25 of them plus Asgrow and Dekalb so that means they could submit 54 hybrids to a plot if they allowed two per company or brand. It seems that they could easily flood a plot to skew it in their favor. Maybe I am just Monsanto-phobic.
This situation has always frustrated me. Lets say there is a plot with 10 hybrids in it. 9 are brand X and 1 is Brand Y. If brand X wins people say that they flooded the plot. To me it doesn't matter that brand X number was the best in that particular plot. Most people would say that brand Y doesn't have a chance, but it has just as good of a chance of winning as the 9 from brand X. Last I knew corn did not need a few "buddies from back home" to yield well.
Edited by hinfarm 7/30/2007 18:26
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Big M effects on test plots and trials
