Corn Seed Company
Amalgamations
Corn producers know that there are a lot fewer corn seed companies than was the case 25 years ago, but the extent of amalgamations is known to few.
Last summer, the U.S. magazine, Agri Marketing published a chart showing amalgamations since 1971, based on information provided by Mycogen. Portions of that information of most relevance to Ontario corn growers are shown in the accompanying table. Note that several of the companies listed did not/do not market seed corn in Canada.
The information is accurate to about late 1996. Since then Dupont has purchased a 20 per cent stake in Pioneer, and there may have been other more recent purchases or mergers not shown in the table.
Note that there are still many small independent seed corn companies in North America, including several in Ontario.
| FORMER COMPANIES | COMPANY IN 1996 |
| Pioneer, Peterson (soybeans) | Pioneer |
| Garst and Thomas*, EJ Funk (Supercrost, BP), Tracey, Americana, Robinson, Diamond, Interstate, Payco, Lowe | Zeneca (Garst, ICI, Vanderhave) |
| Coker, NK (Sandoz), Stauffer, RBA, McNair, Funks (Ciba Seeds), Stewart Seeds | Novartis |
| DeKalb, Pfizer, Trojan, Warwick | DeKalb (Monsanto owns 40%) |
| King Agro, Pride, Voris, McAllister, Shisler, Limagrain, Clemens (soybeans), Atkin | Limagrain (LG Seeds, Pride) |
| Cargill, PAG, PayMaster, United (Maple Leaf Mills) | Cargill |
| O's Gold, Asgrow (UpJohn) | Asgrow (Monsanto) |
| Jacques, McCurdy, RC Young (ORO), Taylor Evans (Golden Acres), Lynks, United Agriseeds | Mycogen (Partially owned by Dow Elanco**) |
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