6 GERMINATION.CA JULY 2018 a farmer can optimize their own seed selection, placement, and population. It’s hugely powerful for growers.” FBN Canada’s approach to doing business on the seed side is a little different than its U.S. counterpart. In the United States, an individual seed variety can be sold under multiple brand names by different retailers at different price points, and FBN’s data will reveal which seed products from which brands are genetically identi- cal, and at what prices they’re being sold for. Because Canada’s seed system for- bids multiple companies from selling the same variety of seed — a system Baron calls more “farmer-friendly” than what exists in the U.S. — FBN Canada will instead focus on perfor- mance and price analytics, according to Staples. “It’s not just genetics in the bag that FBN exposes to transparency — there’s that matrix of price and product performance at play. It’s dif- ficult for seed companies to select data on varietal response under dif- ferent conditions in Western Canada. There’s a limited number of sites that they generally pick to do their trials. Those trials reflect ideal conditions, but don’t reflect where that variety did not perform well,” he says. “That’s the advantage of aggre- gated big data — we can expose the performance of these products in every set of conditions relative to where our member base is located. It allows the grower to ask more questions about the variety, where it performs well and where it doesn’t perform well and make a selection relative to their set of conditions.” Staples says it’s a new way of doing business that might be con- sidered disruptive to the seed indus- try, but he says there’s no cause for concern. “FBN is only disruptive to those companies that aren’t able to show the value they’re adding when they sell product. We’re showing how products perform objectively, in a data-centric way, how they’re priced, and other people’s experience with those products,” he says. “We wel- come any company large or small who wants to work with us to benefit our farmer members. “We don’t think about disrupting the industry. We focus on getting growers the information to make the smartest purchases and the abil- ity to purchasing online, because that’s how farmers can improve their bottom lines.” Tom Staples Charles Baron HOW MUCH SEED CAN A SEED CHECK SEED TECH CHECK? Seed testing experts in purity, germination, vigour and seed health. 1-866-980-8324 OFFICE@SEEDCHECK.NET SEEDCHECK.NET LIKE US ON YOUR SEED LAB