Seed Coating – A Different Way of Thinking

Would you be eager to buy grass seed that has a germination rate of 46%?  Would you change your mind if it was 25% off?

With 50% coated seed a 50 pound bag is actually 25 pounds of grass seed and 25 pounds of coating material.  We’ve all heard of nominal weights and shrinkflation, but imagine buying a “dozen eggs” that had six empty spots.

50 pounds of 50% coated seed at a moderate germination rate of 92% is equal to 50 pounds of raw, uncoated seed that has a germination rate of 46%.

With 50% coated seed, you get half the seed in the bag, but it’s never half the cost.  The reasoning is that there’s freight costs inbound to the coating facility, the cost of the coating itself, plus the freight costs outbound from the coating facility. 

Some companies would like you to believe that seed coatings promote faster growth, but that’s just clever marketing.  A naked seed in direct contact with the soil is always best.  Grasses are the most populous plants on earth and nature does not need to be reengineered. 

Seed coatings for grass seed came about to extend the tonnage when there’s a short crop.  But for the past five years, harvests have been normal, so why is there still a lot of coated grass seed in the market?  Because it is profitable! Seed companies coat seed because it is profitable, not because it’s good for the end user. 

Companies that sell coated seed are taking a coating that costs $0.10 per pound and selling that coating for $2.00,….$2.50,….$3.00 per pound, etc.  Sounds like the kind of margins that everyone on Shark Tank would love to invest in. 

If you’re still reading this, who wants to lift 25 pounds of useless clay, starch, lime or micro plastic coating material?  What is the worth of the end product?  After all the labor and diesel has been paid for, what is the worth of a thick, dark green lawn one year later?  The devil is always in the details and few consumers know how the sausage is made.  This is just a different way of thinking about the facts.