Seed Today - Q2 2008 - (Page 14)

Hungary Seed Production DPMG Cegléd, Hungary contracted to farmers with irrigation. In addition to its own hybrids, DMPG distributes Monsanto corn products. All its cereal seed is protected varieties for which DPMG pays royalty. On the livestock side, the farm has 1,800 sows that annually produce 35,000 to 40,000 pigs, a 1,000-head dairy herd and a 300 cow/calf beef herd. DPMG has 400 full-time employees. Labor laws prohibit seasonal employees. “Being big means that we must strictly follow all the labor laws that some of the small companies avoid,” Muhari says. “There are still some economic policies that slow growth. Our diversified activities help keep employees busy throughout the year.” The high cost of labor hinders the farm’s ability to develop new businesses. Employee wages equal only half of the cost of labor. The other half is various taxes state. In spite of high labor costs, the farm earned a five percent profit in 2006. “A two to three percent profit would have been good, so we cannot complain,” Muhari says. DPMG’s Communist-era seed plant has received modern updates Former 45,000 acre state-owned cooperative is now a 25,000 acre family “farm” DPMG is a large, diversified agricultural enterprise that has a history as varied as its operation. It was established in 1953 as a 45,000 acre stateowned cooperative to produce seed, livestock, dairy and crops. “The farm has gone through two upheavals in 50 years,” Director Pál Muhari told me. “First, family farms were consolidated into a co-op, then the co-op returned to a family operation. Each transition was an economically destructive as the other.” Three years after the end of Communism, the farm became a state share holder. It was privatized in 2001 and its size reduced to about 15,000 acres cropland plus 10,000 acres of pasture, woodland and orchards. Along with 2,000 acres of corn and cereal seed production, the farm raises about 3,200 acres of corn plus rape, sunflowers, sugar beets and alfalfa. Since the 1980s, seed production has been reduced by 85 percent as large multinational seed companies have entered the seed market. Most of the seed corn production is Above: A Heid Centri Coater CC seed treater is wedged into a second-floor corner next to an older bucket elevator Left: Steel glass-fused tanks provide storage capacity for seed products. 14 Second Quarter 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Seed Today - Q2 2008

Seed Today - Q2 2008 Contents Editor’s Notes Cover Feature IKR BÁBOLNAMAG AOSA/SCST Gary Biel Bill Latham According to ASTA AOSCA Origin AgriTech Ltd. Pipeline Auditec Power Seeds, Inc RSI Systems LLC Mill & Elevator Supply Co. Agronomix Software, Inc Green Age® Products and Services USDA Crop Projections Buyers’ Guide Ad Index

Seed Today - Q2 2008

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