"It's not possible to get untreated seeds in many areas of North America. The question was....why not? "

I suspect the answer to why not is because there is for practical purposes no demand for untreated seed.  Any farmer who planted untreated seed likely is not going to be in business very long unless he uses far larger amounts of pesticides applied as sprays or granules.  Farmers were planting 100% treated corn seed to fight pests clear back when I was a kid.  Back then the seed treatments were mercury compounds if I remember right.  In the case of neonics use as seed treatments allows very low doses per acre.  On corn for instance it only takes from 0.15 to 1 ounce per acre to be effective when used as a seed treatment.  Yet, if broadcast as a granule the dose required for equal control is a pound per acre according to this site provided by the U of NC:

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/plymouth/ent/neonicotinoidseedcoat.html

You can not skip a year of seed treatment as the prior years carry over in many cases is very near zero and even if it were 100% it would not be an effective dose spread thru the soil.  The only safe way to skip a year of seed treatment would be to apply 15 to 100 times as much pesticide as a side dressing compared to the required amount for seed treatment.

It is not in Bayer's best interest at all to sell neonics as seed treatments.  They could make a lot more money by pulling seed treatment registration off the label and force use of much larger amounts as a side dressing or spray.  Would this make beekeepers happy?  I hope so because if beekeepers keep bitching about seed treatments they may see far, far larger amounts of pesticides applied.

Farmers are not dumb.  If they could increase profits by not seed treating you can bet they would be doing it.

Dick


" Any discovery made by the human mind can be explained in its essentials to the curious learner."  Professor Benjamin Schumacher talking about teaching quantum mechanics to non scientists.   "For every complex problem there is a solution which is simple, neat and wrong."  H. L. Mencken

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