Are Volume Discounts for Corn Seed Worth It?

Volume discount programs are widely used across the seed industry, but are they worth it? Seed companies offer the programs to reward larger bag unit or total dollar commitment to the brand. Some brands utilize fairly linear, straightforward volume discounts. Some brands reward farmers massively for getting into larger purchase levels.

If you bought more seed, would you ultimately pay less?

Heavy volume purchase programs can make it harder for smaller farms to realize higher discount levels accessible by farms that cover more acres, leading to overall higher production costs per acre for small farmers.  

In the chart below, we examine how the purchase volume of seed typically impacts the discount rate for a select set of brands:

What can you do about it?

1. Find out if you are paying above average prices for seed per bushel for your region. FBN Seed Finder’s Price Transparency system shows price after discount (not just the discount percentage) to determine how good of a deal you might be getting on corn seed.

2. Download theCorn Seed Discounts Report- we explore how discounts vary by volume, brand, state and customer type, as observed from yield data contributed anonymously by FBNmembers. 

FBN members can access this exclusive report on corn seed discounts in the "My Reports" section of their FBN accounts.

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Legend is a registered trademark of Legend Seeds. FS is a registered trademark of Growmark, Inc. Agrigold, Great Lakes, LG Seeds, Producers Hybrids, and Wensman are registered trademarks of Agreliant Genetics LLC or their respective owners. Dekalb and Channel are registered trademarks of the Monsanto Company. Pioneer, Mycogen and Pfister are registered trademarks of DowDuPont, Pioneer or their respective owners. Enogen and Golden Harvest are registered trademarks of a Syngenta Group company. Dyna-Gro is a registered trademark of Crop Production Services, Inc. Croplan is a registered trademarks of WinField Solutions, LLC. Wyffels is a registered trademark of Wyffels Hybrids. Beck’s is a trademark of Beck’s Hybrids. Dekalb and VT Double PRO are registered trademarks of Monsanto Technology LLC.