Cool spring temperatures with adequate rainfall amounts were just the right ingredients for this year’s fescue seed crop in southwest Missouri.

However, according to Keith Hankins, vice president and general manager of Pennington Seed Inc. in Greenfield, Mo., there are some needed ingredients missing to complete a recipe which will result in profit.

“It looks like fescue seed harvest is on schedule this year and should begin around June 20th,” he explains. “The cool temperatures and and timely rains have been favorable for this year’s seed crop, however, there are some set-backs.”

The negative side of this year’s crop, according to Hankins, is that, due to costly fertilizer prices, a lot of pastures didn’t get fertilized and, if they did, the amount was reduced.

“High fertilizer prices and a slow economy will definitely have an impact on this year’s seed crop,” he says.

Currently, the price for Kentucky 31 Tall Fescue is $.25 cents a pound for dry seed.

“I am guessing the price will stay right around that mark during harvest,” Hankins says. “There may be some potential for prices to go up, depending on the size of the crop, but I would say this year’s fescue seed will bring in the range of 20-25 cents a pound.”

That price is totally dependent on supply and demand, according to Hankins.

“Last year, seed was at about 45 cents a pound and we had a large crop in excess of 100 million pounds in Missouri,” he explains.

Second to Missouri in seed production is the state of Oregon. Hankins said last year they harvested around 20 million pounds of seed.

In Missouri, according to Hankins, fescue seed production goes up to about where Highway 50 runs east and west. It then continues on over to north of the Bootheel, then running towards St. Louis.

“In addition to that, there is fescue grown for production in Arkansas, northeast Oklahoma and southeastern Kansas,”he explains. “I have always kind of tied Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas into the Missouri crop since it usually ends up here.”

Annual fescue seed usage in the United States is about 80 million pounds, where virtually all the seed is used for lawns.

“This year we are looking at as much as a 50 million pound carryover, which leads to lower seed prices,” he says.

Fescue is a unique crop, especially in the way it is used for lawns, according to Hankins.