S
eed doesn’t move through a business in a straight line. On the 
journey to a customer, it gets inspected, cleaned, dried, tested 
and packaged, and by the time it’s ready for shipping, it might 
look very different than when it came off the field. A batch can be 
handled correctly at every stage and still leave a company without a 
clear picture of what is actually in stock. 
Solving that starts with the crop inspector needing to quickly 
record exactly what they see in the field. It continues with knowing 
exactly where the seed is as it moves through cleaning, drying and 
processing. And from first inspection to final sale, quality has to be 
tracked just as closely as quantity and location. All of that is pos­
sible with the ABS suite of products.
The crop inspector standing in a field, tablet in hand, can log 
yield estimates, disease signs and photos of a plant that doesn’t 
look quite right. If there is no connection, that data simply waits and 
uploads the moment there is one. What used to be a notebook filled 
in from memory hours or days later, becomes a record captured the 
instant it’s observed. That is what ABS Production is built to do. 
Once that seed reaches the warehouse, the question is where 
exactly it is, and what has already happened to it. A batch might be 
drying while another from the same lot is in cleaning, and another 
is in storage waiting on a buyer. Using the ABS system, you see all 
that in seconds, right from your desk. Every stage that a lot passes 
PARTNER CONTENT
How to Track Your Seed From Field 
to Final Sale
By Mauritz Geldenhuys
through, including expected yield, harvest quantities, processing 
results, and who it was eventually sold to lives in one view we 
call the root tree. This view can be contracted to show a quick 
overview or expanded to show minute details.
And yet a seed lot sitting in storage for six months has 
changed from the first day it was put on the shelf. Quantity and 
location only tell part of the story. Germination rates shift. That’s 
why our system visibly ties every germination test or purity check 
to the lot. When a customer asks for a batch’s specs, the answer 
is right there. 
Spreadsheets and standard ERP (enterprise resource plan­
ning) systems might carry a smaller seed company for a while. The 
problem is that seed doesn’t behave like most inventory. A kilogram 
received won’t be a kilogram sold once it’s cleaned, dried and 
converted to a seed count. That complexity outgrows a spreadsheet 
fast, and broader ERPs require wedging in parts unique to seed. 
The tool was just never shaped for this particular task.
These are just the starting points of what’s built into ABS. 
There’s more to it, like purchasing and planning tools that help 
you see a shortfall before it becomes a problem, and ways to 
manage production across countries and currencies. But all of it 
comes back to having software built for how seed actually moves 
through a business, so you know exactly where you stand. 
NOVEMBER 2026  SEEDWORLD.COM/CANADA   19

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