Bulk bags for seed

Off the conditioning line

Seed plants clean, size, treat and bag in one flow. After the treater, seed runs to a bagging station where a bag hangs on a scale frame, and the line drops seed by count or by weight until the bag holds the planned number of units. Seed is fragile next to fertilizer or sand: a hard drop from a tall chute cracks kernels, so many plants slow it with a spiral or ladder chute inside the fill head.

Because unit count matters more than weight, seed size sets the body height. A large-kernel corn and a small-seeded forage grass need different heights for the same number of units. Send us the bulk density, or the height of a filled bag, and we'll size the body to it.

At the farm: tenders and planters

A grower or dealer picks up bags on a flatbed, and at the field the bag goes over a seed tender with a loader, telehandler or the tender's own crane. The operator opens the spout, the tender's conveyor carries seed to the planter, and the empty bag folds back onto the truck. Spout length and the tie cord are what the operator touches, so we ask how the tender is built before choosing them.

Some dealers repack bags into smaller boxes or minibulk containers. That makes the bag a warehouse item for a while, which means stacking height and baffles start to matter as much as the spout.

Tenders come in many builds: trailer-mounted boxes with a hydraulic belt, truck-mounted units with an onboard scale, and plain gravity wagons. A planter with central-fill hoppers takes seed from the tender's belt or auger in minutes, and the operator wants a bag that empties completely, with no pocket of kernels trapped in a corner to spill when the empty is folded. A bottom that tapers into the spout, sometimes called a conical discharge, helps the last bushel run out. Soybeans have a thin seed coat and crack easily, so a gentle, short drop matters there too.

Breathing room, treatment dust and mixed lots

Seed is alive. Sealing it in an airtight liner with a bit of field moisture can raise humidity inside the bag and hurt germination, which is why seed bags usually go unlined. Respiration slows when seed is cool and dry, so warehouses that hold it into summer often run fans or air conditioning. The flip side is that the bag must stay out of rain and off wet floors, since it will not keep water out.

Seed treatments, the fungicides and insecticides coated on the seed, can dust off in handling. Bags of treated seed carry that dust, so they should be marked as treated and never reused for feed or food. Mixed lots, a few soybeans in a corn bag, are a dealer's nightmare, and the main reason seed only goes in new bags.

Planting deadlines, sheds and carryover seed

Seed plants harvest and condition in fall, treat and bag through winter, and ship hard in late winter and spring ahead of planting. A seed bag order that arrives in April is too late. Most plants plan bags at the same time as treater runs, and it pays to land the full count before the first shipments to dealers start.

Cover crop seed keeps its own window in late summer and early fall, after small grains come off and before corn and soybeans are harvested.

Between the plant and the planter, seed waits in a warehouse, a dealer's shed or a farmer's machine shed. Those buildings are rarely climate controlled, and seed keeps best cool and dry. Stack bags on clean pallets, keep them back from doors where rain blows in, and watch for mice and rats, which chew straight through woven polypropylene to reach corn. Bait stations and a sweeping schedule protect the bag as much as the seed.

Returns are part of the business. Unopened bags often come back to the dealer or seed company after planting, are held over, and may be retested for germination before they go out the next spring. A bag that goes through that cycle needs a legible tag, an intact spout tie and loops strong enough for another round of forklift moves, and printed lot details have to survive a summer in a hot shed.

Requesting seed bags

A seed bag quote turns on a few plant details. With them we can plan bales per pallet and a delivery date ahead of your first treater run.

• Crop, and the units or weight per bag
• Fill head type and chute height
• Tender or planter equipment at the farm end
• Fabric: uncoated, coated or breathable
• Print, tag pouch and any treated-seed marking
• Plant ZIP and the number of bags for the season

Where we ship seed bags most

• Iowa
• Illinois
• Nebraska
• Indiana
• Minnesota