FYI or was that “Farmer’s Yield Initiative”?

MSU has signed the contract to be a sponsoring member of the Farmer’s Yield Initiative. FYI is a
partnership among the public and private small grain breeding programs, crop improvement associations
and businesses, to promote the value of pure seed. There will be a “hotline” for reporting PVP
violations that will be handled by professionals in the business of protecting intellectual property
rights. This is very hot off the press and more details will follow. Keep your eyes out for the brochure
coming directly to your mail box with all the exciting information on pure seed and enforcement of
PVP.

Certified seed production and acres planted in Montana are definitely on the increase. You may not
realize that the number of grain acres planted with pure seed is also on the rise. My crude calculations
with a dull pencil, show 32% of the acres planted for MSU protected varieties, were done so with
certified seed in 2007. Ron Larson and Heather Rimel also did some whittling with their pencils and
figured around a third of the public/private acres were sown with pure seed. In my book, that makes
Montana a pure seed friendly state. Let’s keep the pure seed pipe line flowing with top varieties to
fuel the grain market.

Here’s to a successful seed harvest,

Bill Grey

Montana Foundation Seed Page, Bill Grey