Spring 2023

Happy 2023 New Year,

We wish to thank everyone for your continued support during the last couple of challenging seasons. The outlook on grass seed is good after last years’ crop has been assessed. The good news is that, prices are softening going into the spring sales season. One thing learned from the last season is, it’s easier to serve pickup customers by calling in orders before arriving at the warehouse. As one says, “time is money”. Waiting for your order to be picked and made ready for loading, takes much longer and cost money to have a crew or employee wait. We strive to get orders processed and loaded, taking less time waiting.

A statement from our last communication stated: “Hopefully this seed situation will stabilize soon and we can have better and more consistent prices” We are almost there, but not there yet. We still need to flush out higher cost remaining carry over seed inventory and introduce current crop seed due to lower costs. Until then, be sure to have the most current prices to work with on your proposals and quotes.

Something to be aware of this spring. There will be a decent supply of Coated Seed mixed into grass seed mixes from many sup-pliers. As you may know, Oliger Seed only sells raw grass seed! Not to be confused with coated seeds. Keep in mind that many coated seed have as much as 50% inert materials in the mix. Simply, this means that there is only half as much seed in a pound of seed. This can usually be detected, when there seems to be a lower seed price. During the last couple of seasons, coated seeds were widely used by seed companies to double the number of seed available to blend and sell. There is still a great deal of coated material in the supply chain that will end up in seed mixes again this year.

No smoke and mirrors at Oliger Seed. Check the seed tag. The tag must identify inert material as a percent of weight by law. There should also be a statement on the tag identifying technical data about the coating if there is additional material like fungicide for disease, micronutrients, fertilizer and beneficial bacteria. If any of this extra material is not called out, there is just the clay coating material without the extras that many make claim of, as a benefit.

Something that a customer told me once that I’ve never forgotten. “I’ve never lost a bid or job because of the grass seed price”. Using the best quality seed on a project will finish a job and continue to perform for dozens of years after installation. As hard as we all work to produce a quality job, why scrimp on less than Oliger Quality. We appreciate your support and will continue to serve the professional trades as we have for nearly 90 years. As you know there is a difference in seed products and I’m please to tell you that we have been able to maintain our quality standards during these tough times.

Wholesale Only defined:

Many of our customers are not aware that we only sell products into distribution, (retail establishments) or direct to the trades (You are special). We mention this because there are times that our customers suggest that their customers come into our office, and attempt to make a purchase directly from us. We appreciate that our loyal customers are satisfied with our products, and recommend us to friends and their customers. However, this presents a problem when they come in to make a purchase. We do not sell direct to non-trades and homeowners, since it conflicts with sales to our valued dealers. These people leave being disappointed since we will not sell to them.

Many who come in ask why we would not want to sell directly to homeowners or non-trades. Simple, our dealers are set up to better service these customers. Oliger Seed Company is primarily a manufacturer, and we are not set up to service the many questions and requirements to satisfy nonprofessionals. Furthermore, we protect the trades by only selling to them. Many companies mark up the material costs on projects, which is their decision if they choose to. By limiting sales to the channels that we sell into, preserves the cost of good since it is not public information. We hope that this clarifies our policy. If your customer wants our products, they can buy it directly from you, or they can call our office, and will be pleased to recommend a dealer close to them. Thanks again for your support.

Return Policy

ALL SALES ARE FINAL! No returns, exchanges, or refunds. All sales are final. We only accept returns or exchanges for product damaged in transit on our trucks or if the incorrect item was shipped. Upon receipt of the damaged item or incorrect item, a refund will then be issued or an exchange can be made. If paid by credit card, refund must be credited back to card.