Albert Lea Seed House 2017 Conventional Seed Guide | Page 2

“Why is there a NorthStar Genetics catalog inside my Viking catalog?
…And what happened to my favorite hybrid?”
By Mac Ehrhardt, Co-owner
Viking and Albert Lea Seed are making some
changes that will benefit our customers by
making us a more focused company.
What’s happening? Two things:
1. Viking Corn & Soybeans (which is owned by Albert Lea Seed)
is becoming a 100% non-traited brand that will develop and
market non-GMO and organic corn, soybean and alfalfa seed.
2. Albert Lea Seed is becoming a distributor for NorthStar
Genetics traited corn and soybean seed.
In practical terms, this means that Viking will
no longer develop and sell traited seeds (such
as Roundup Ready® soybeans or Genuity
SmartStax® corn). Instead, Albert Lea Seed
will be supplying them through NorthStar
Genetics. You’ll still be able to get everything
you need from Albert Lea Seed, but all our
traited seed will come in a NorthStar bag. If
you need traited seed, you’ll have the benefit
of NorthStar’s reach, expertise and expanded
choices—as in more maturities and traits (think
LibertyLink® soybeans and Roundup Ready 2
Xtend® soybeans).

Who is NorthStar?

Focusing on what we know best

The reason for the change is simple: It’s time for us to focus on
what we know best, which is developing, testing and supplying
non-traited seed. For a decade, the fastest-growing part of Viking
and Albert Lea Seed has been conventional
non-GMO and organic seed. We support all
streams of agriculture, but we don’t have the
resources to develop traited seed and compete
with Syngenta, Monsanto and Dow/DuPont.
But we do have the resources and the passion
to develop and deliver the best conventional
non-GMO hybrids, varieties and innovation to
those farmers that need them.

“Do not try to
do everything.
Do one
thing well.”

Making the most of our team’s experience

What’s not changing is our ownership or our
team. You’ll still be working with the same
folks. They know their stuff and they’ve been
in this business a long time—some of them for
decades.

– STEVE JOBS

NorthStar is, like us, an independent farm seed company
based in Minnesota. They have licenses for traits and genetics
from all the major companies. We’ve known them for as long
as they’ve been in business (some 20 years). In fact, the first
Roundup Ready soybeans we carried were in a NorthStar bag.

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This new partnership will be a continuation of work we’ve
done with them, which means Albert Lea Seed will have a role
in product development. In other words, we’ll still be bringing
you trait and genetic combinations that are specially selected for
southern Minnesota, northern Iowa and western Wisconsin. In
fact, we will still be carrying most of your favorite hybrids!

Moving forward

As we make this transition over the next few months, we’ll keep
you in the loop. In the meantime, if you have questions, don’t
hesitate to reach out. We sincerely appreciate your business and
look forward to working with you for years to come.

800.352.5247 • 507.373.3161 • www.alseed.com