The latest news tha Bayer wants to buy Monsanto has the agriculture industry wondering yet again how the growing consolidation in the seed and crop chemical industry could affect farmers large and small. “I think (feelings about the merger) are mixed … across the country,” says Ken McCauley, a farmer from White Cloud, Kansas. Like other farmers, he is concerned that less competition in the marketplace will drive up input prices, but he’s also concerned that consolidation will also affect the speed at which new products come to market. After all, seed and crop companies might be less aggressive with innovation if they have fewer competitors to beat. Seed dealers are also concerned. “Our perspective is the same as it is on the farm,” says Tom Burrus, president of Burrus Hybrids in Arenzville, Ill. “Consolidation impacts not only the grower-- it also impacts us.” His company works with a handful of companies involved in the pending major seed deals, and if these mergers are successful, his company will go from having five suppliers to three.
Such pressures may be unavoidable in ag right now, though.