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You’ve probably already gotten calls about early discounts this year. Some of these offers are direct (“10% off if you order by August 31st”) while the value of others are less clear (discounted financing rather than a discount on the seed itself). Having a strategy for evaluating these offers will give you confidence in only accepting an offer that makes sense for your operation.
One way to evaluate an early seed discount is to approximate the yield you might expect from a given brand. Added to price information from your dealer, you can compare different brands at different discount levels to determine whether taking the discount makes sense.
This example shows that even a 10 percent discount is not enough to make up for a yield lag on low performing brands or varieties. Evaluating discounts and considering the long-term costs of committing to a crop months before you plant will help you avoid these raw deals.