34 SEEDWORLD.COM/CANADA NOVEMBER 2026 ASK A FARMER what they want from a new variety and the answer has been remarkably consistent over Todd Hyra’s 30-plus years in the seed business. “What’s better than what I’m grow ing now?” For Hyra, western business manager at SeCan, that question governs every decision that follows. A seed grower needs a reason to devote acres to multi plying a variety. A retailer needs a reason to recommend it. A farmer needs a reason to buy it. “It doesn’t always have to be pure yield,” Hyra says. “It can be standability. It can be grade retention. It can be a patch to a disease that has been causing problems. But it’s got to be better than what they have now.” That sounds straightforward. The dif ficult part is building a seed system that can develop those improvements, prove they work, reward the people behind them and get enough seed into farmers’ hands. In our recent Retail Strategy webinar discussion, Hyra joined Mark Keating of Keating Seed in Russell, Man., Greg Stamp of Stamp Seeds in Enchant, Alta., and Nick Petruic, a Saskatchewan seed grower and president of the Saskatchewan Seed Growers’ Association (SSGA). Each sees a different point where a promising variety can either move forward or fall short. The question is becoming more urgent as discussions about modernizing Canada’s seed system gather pace. Keating, Stamp and Petruic recently appeared on On the Brink to examine what it will take to fund better varieties, prove their value and get seed into farm ers’ fields. A Better Variety Has to Lower Risk Keating can name two genetic advances RETAIL STRATEGY CANADA CAN BREED IT. CAN WE DELIVER IT? A better variety still needs credible data, a reason to invest and enough seed to reach farmers. By Marc Zienkiewicz that changed his farm. Shatter-resistant canola reduced the possibility that a windstorm would destroy value while a swathed crop lay in the field. Midge tolerant wheat offered protection from severe losses; later, putting that trait into shorter varieties improved standability and harvest. The canola advance “helped me sleep better,” he said. It also allowed him to grow more canola. Those examples say more about seed value than a yield comparison alone does. A variety can pay by preventing a bad outcome, making harvest easier or giving a farmer greater confidence in a crop. As the amount of money commit ted to each acre grows, those benefits become more valuable. “The financial risk in farming is enormous,” Keating says. Yield remains central because higher yield generally lowers the cost per bushel. But prehar vest sprouting tolerance, standability, maturity and protein can also change the financial result. Stamp points to hybrid rye as an example of farmers accepting a sub stantially higher seed cost when they see a convincing return. Its yield advan tage and ability to handle dry periods have helped drive adoption, he says. In other crops, the deciding trait might be reduced bleaching in green peas or disease resistance in lentils. There is no universal percentage gain that makes a premium worthwhile. The threshold depends on the problem a farmer faces and what it costs that opera tion. For a retailer, that suggests a more useful conversation than simply call ing a variety “better.” Which risk does it reduce? Under what conditions? How does its added seed cost compare with its likely value on a farm? Show What the Investment Buys Keating doesn’t think farmers are inher ently unwilling to invest in genetics. They regularly make expensive decisions with long payback periods. The challenge is that plant breeding offers little imme diate proof of what today’s payment will produce tomorrow. “We’re seeing the results of invest ments that were made 10 to 15 years ago,” Keating says of varieties performing today. A strong crop this year therefore POLL How confident are you that Canada’s seed system will deliver the varieties farmers need over the next 10 years? Very confident 8% Somewhat confident 50% Not very confident 16% Not confident at all 8% Unsure 16% Todd Hyra is Secan’s western business manager.
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