10/13/05 Urban growth threatens seed industry

There are ten to 15 thousand acres of sweet corn grown in southwestern Idaho each year just for seed. There are five major seed companies in Canyon County but they've seen a dramatic change, especially in the last three to five years says Crookham Seed vice president Terry Clinton. CLINTON "Our growers are either selling their land because of developers offering exorbitant amounts of money for their land or we're losing it because we can't isolate the crop." Clinton says it's imperative that sweet corn seed be isolated and until the booming growth around Nampa that wasn't a problem. Corn seed growers used to be confined to a 50 mile circle around Crookham's Caldwell processing plant. CLINTON "We are expanding up into Payette County, we're looking at Emmett. We're looking over at Grandview. We're also growing some crops now over in Oregon, in Malheur County." Growers will also have to transport that seed into Caldwell and that's why Crookham just invested one million dollars in new trailers. CLINTON "The grower will supply the semi or the tractor, and then we supply the trailer. What that does is we get more crop in because we went to larger transport vehicles." And one other potential problem Clinton sees. His growers are aging. If they don't sell their land their children aren't getting into farming. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott