seed-mcp/docs_mcp/lessons.md

crop_seed API lessons

Curated knowledge that does not live in the scraped corpus but that an agent needs to interpret search_docs / get_page results correctly. This file is the source for crop_seed_api_lessons(topic).

Each section starts with a ## <slug> heading; the tool returns sections whose slug matches the topic (substring match) or all sections when topic is None.

This file is the only place the MCP injects opinionated content. Everything else returned by the server comes verbatim from a vendor catalog. Lessons here should be: factual, well-cited, and conservative about what the corpus actually contains.

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pioneer

Pioneer (Corteva) is NOT in the seed-mcp corpus. The MCP intentionally does not scrape pioneer.com. Per Pioneer's published Terms of Service:

"you shall not use any manual or automated software, devices or other processes (including but not limited to spiders, robots, scrapers, crawlers, avatars, data mining tools or the like) to 'scrape' or download data from the Services"

Pioneer additionally runs Imperva WAF on their catalog API and login-walls dealer lookup, so a polite scrape isn't technically feasible either.

Agent behavior when a farmer asks about Pioneer / P-series hybrids:

1. Tell the farmer plainly: "I don't have Pioneer's variety data indexed — Pioneer doesn't allow automated indexing of their catalog."
2. Recommend pioneer.com → Find a Sales Rep (or call 1-800-247-6803) for hybrid specs and local recommendations.
3. If the farmer wants an independent third-party rating for a specific Pioneer hybrid, mention that university extension performance trials (Iowa State, Illinois Crop Sciences, Purdue, Nebraska, Ohio State) publish multi-location yield data on Pioneer hybrids alongside competitors — useful if they want apples-to-apples data without going through Pioneer's own marketing.
4. Do NOT invent Pioneer hybrid ratings. If asked "what's the disease tolerance of P1142AM?", the only correct answer is "I don't have that data — please consult Pioneer or an extension service."

This is the canonical anti-hallucination policy for the seed-mcp. There is no Pioneer data; there is no inference. Direct the farmer to a primary source.

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rating-scales

Different vendors publish ratings on different conventions. The chunker normalizes the labels in the chunk preamble but always preserves the source's _scale_direction field in the sidecar.

Bayer (DEKALB / Asgrow / WestBred): 1-9 (9 = best). A GRAY LEAF SPOT rating of 8 means EXCELLENT tolerance. A rating of 2 means SUSCEPTIBLE.

Syngenta Golden Harvest: 9-to-1 (9 = best, 1 = worst) — this is the direction Golden Harvest publishes, but the meaning of high numbers is the same: high = best. Where the chunker says "normalize" for Golden Harvest, that just means we've already re-stated it as 1-9 (9 = best) in the chunk preamble; the source's _scale_direction field still says 9-to-1 so you can detect the provenance.

Syngenta NK and AgriPro: 1-9 (1 = best, lower = more resistant). REVERSED from Bayer and Golden Harvest. NK's tech-sheet PDFs literally print "1-9 Scale: 1 = Best, 9 = Worst" in the footer; AgriPro's positioning on stripe-rust-resistant varieties (e.g. AP Iliad with Stripe Rust 1, Eyespot 2) confirms the same direction. On NK, this applies both to disease tolerance AND to numeric agronomic ratings (Emergence, Standability, Shatter Tolerance, Green Stem — all 1 = best). Cross-vendor comparisons MUST consult the _scale_direction field in each side's sidecar before drawing conclusions.

(Agronomic ratings on AgriPro are qualitative — "Excellent / Very Good / Good / Fair" — and have no direction issue. NK's soybean tech sheets ALSO publish soil-type adaptation as Best/Good/Fair/Poor labels which are qualitative.)

Beck's: ratings live behind SeedIQ login; only identity-level data is publicly available, so most disease/agronomic ratings are absent from Beck's records in this corpus.

ProHarvest Seeds: mixed scales on one record. Disease Tolerance is 1-9 numeric, 9 = best / most tolerant (same direction as Bayer — no flip; NA = not rated). General Characteristics and Agronomic Features are qualitative (Excellent / Very Good / Good / Average) with a few raw numerics (GDD pollination/black-layer, kernel rows). Soil Adaptability uses HR (highly recommended) / R (recommended). The single _scale_direction line on the record states all three. Ebbert's-style independent brand, but ratings ARE parsed into structured groups so they're retrievable.

Latham Hi-Tech Seeds: numeric ratings ~1-9 where LOWER = BETTER (1 = best / most tolerant / most resistant) — REVERSED from Bayer, same direction as NK / AgriPro. There's no on-page legend; the direction was derived empirically (top-rated stalks/roots cluster at 1.0–1.5, weak traits at 3.0–3.5). Categorical values pass through verbatim: SCN source (PI 88788), Phytophthora gene (Rps 1k), Anthracnose (ASR). NA/blank = not rated.

Stine Seed: corn is 1-9 numeric, 9 = Excellent / best (HIGHER = better, same as Bayer — read from the on-page legend: 9 Excellent … 5 Below Average). Soybeans are QUALITATIVE (vigor Excellent/Very Good/Good; disease Resistant/Strong/Good/Susceptible where Resistant/Strong = best), with SCN source + RPS gene passed through, not a number. So a Stine corn "8" is strong but a Latham "8" is weak — never compare the raw numbers across these two.

Burrus Seed: numeric ratings 1-10, 10 = best / most tolerant (HIGHER = better; observed range 4–10). Herbicide tolerances and Bt insect-protection are Yes/No (verbatim). NR/blank/0/- = not rated. Covers brands Burrus / Power Plus / DONMARIO.

1st Choice Seeds: 0-10, HIGHER = better (0-4 Below Average, 5 Average, 6 Good, 7 Very Good, 8 Excellent, 9-10 Superior). Many older corn hybrids publish only partial ratings (source gap); wheat is identity-only.

RobSeeCo (Rob-See-Co + Innotech): 1-9, 9 = Best (HIGHER = better, same direction as Bayer / Stine-corn); - = not available. Plant Height 9=Tall, Ear Height 9=High; Planting Rate L/ML/M/MH/H; Product Fit Geography A=All, C=Central, E=East, W=West, CW=Central+West (a placement code, not a rating). Soy disease uses letter codes (R/MR/S) + an SCN source (e.g. Peking) + Rps gene. Sourced from the seed-guide PDF, so it's identity + structured ratings but no live web page per variety.

⚠️ Direction is NOT consistent across the independents. HIGHER = better: Bayer, Golden Harvest, Stine(corn), ProHarvest(disease), Burrus(1-10), 1st Choice(0-10), RobSeeCo(1-9). LOWER = better (1 = best): NK, AgriPro, Latham. Qualitative (no direction): Stine(soy), ProHarvest(general/agronomic), AgriPro(agronomic), Ebbert's. A raw numeric rating is meaningless without its _scale_direction.

Always check the chunk's "Rating scale" line or call lookup_variety(source_key) and look at _scale_direction if you are unsure. Cross-vendor comparisons are valid AFTER you've confirmed each side uses the same direction.

Non-numeric values appear for some characteristics and should be read literally:

• R, MR, S for soybean disease resistance = Resistant / Moderately Resistant / Susceptible (not 1-9).
• Rps1c, Rps3a, Rps1k, etc. = specific Phytophthora resistance gene present.
• R1, R3 (under SOYBEAN CYST NEMATODE) = effective against SCN race 1 / race 3.
• A, B, C under HERBICIDE sensitivity = grade letters where A is most tolerant.

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maturity-semantics

Maturity is encoded differently per crop. Don't conflate the units.

Corn — Relative maturity (RM days): integer roughly 75-120. Lower = shorter season, suitable for higher latitudes / shorter growing windows. 110 RM is a Central Iowa default; 85 RM suits northern Minnesota or short-season silage; 115+ RM fits southern Indiana / southern Illinois / Missouri Delta. The number is Pioneer-style RM days, normalized across the industry.

Soybeans — Maturity group (MG): float 00 (zero-zero) to 9.0 expressed with one decimal. A "3.5 MG" soybean is for central Iowa. Northern North Dakota / Minnesota plant 0.0–1.5 MG. Mid-South plants 5.0+. Each tenth of an MG ≈ 7-10 days of additional season. Sidecar field: maturity_group (e.g. "3.5", "0.7").

Wheat — Class + heading: Winter / spring decision is separate from "class" (HRW / HRS / SRW / SWW / SWS / durum):

• HRW = Hard Red Winter — Plains states bread wheat
• HRS = Hard Red Spring — Northern Plains, North Dakota, Montana
• SRW = Soft Red Winter — Eastern Corn Belt, Ohio Valley
• SWW = Soft White Winter — Pacific Northwest
• SWS = Soft White Spring — Pacific Northwest
• Durum — North Dakota / Montana, pasta wheat Maturity is qualitative: Early / Medium-Early / Medium / Medium-Late / Late. WestBred's product page JSON does not always expose the wheat class as a structured field — sometimes it's only in the marketing narrative (e.g. "WB1376CLP is a Soft White Winter Clearfield® Plus Wheat variety"). Read positioning_statement carefully when the sidecar's wheat_class is null.

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trait-glossary

Common trait codes that appear in trait_stack:

Corn:

• SSRIB — SmartStax® RIB Complete® corn blend (above + below-ground insect protection + Roundup Ready + LibertyLink, with refuge-in-bag)
• VT2PRIB — VT Double PRO® RIB Complete® (above-ground insect protection + Roundup Ready, refuge-in-bag)
• VT4PRIB — VT4 PRO® RIB Complete® (newer above-ground protection)
• Trecepta — Trecepta® (Trecepta + Roundup Ready + LibertyLink, for earworm + western bean cutworm pressure)
• SmartStax PRO — SmartStax® PRO® (RNAi corn rootworm)
• PowerCore — PowerCore® Refuge Advanced (older above-ground stack)
• Conventional — no biotech traits (organic / specialty channels)

Soybeans:

• XF — XtendFlex® (Roundup Ready 2 Xtend + dicamba + glufosinate)
• Xtend — Roundup Ready 2 Xtend® (dicamba + glyphosate)
• RR2Y — Roundup Ready 2 Yield® (glyphosate only)
• E3 — Enlist E3® (2,4-D + glyphosate + glufosinate)
• LL/LL+GT27 — LibertyLink® / LibertyLink + GT27 (glufosinate + glyphosate + isoxaflutole)
• Conkesta E3 — Bt-stack for caterpillar pressure (BR/AR markets)
• SR — SR® (sulfonylurea-tolerant, Asgrow-specific)

Wheat:

• Clearfield / CLP — Clearfield® / Clearfield® Plus (imazamox tolerance)
• CoAXium — CoAXium® (quizalofop tolerance) — note: AgriPro's catalog flag, NOT in the WestBred corpus.

Always render the full trait name (trait_descriptions) when telling the farmer "this variety has X trait" — bare trait codes are ambiguous in print.

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scn-resistance

Soybean Cyst Nematode resistance ratings are critical for fields with SCN pressure (most of the Corn Belt). Read carefully:

• R3 under SOYBEAN CYST NEMATODE = Resistant to race 3 (the most common race nationally). Most "SCN-resistant" soybeans on the market are R3.
• R1, R3 = Resistant to both race 1 AND race 3. Higher value; useful in long-rotation SCN fields where race shifts have occurred.
• MR3 = Moderately Resistant to race 3. Some yield loss expected under high SCN pressure.
• S = Susceptible.
• Some Bayer Asgrow XF lines (e.g. AG29XF4) use Peking-type SCN resistance, which is genetically distinct from the more common PI 88788 source. Peking is more durable when SCN populations have eroded PI 88788 effectiveness. Look for "Peking type" in the positioning statement.

Recommended workflow when a farmer asks about SCN: call search_docs with the user's MG range + "SCN-resistant", then lookup_variety on the top 2-3 candidates to verify the exact race coverage and resistance source.

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regional-listings

The regional_recommendations array in each sidecar is sourced from Bayer's "local profiles" — varieties get assigned to regional Seed Guide bundles (e.g. "2026 Washington, Oregon, SEED GUIDE") with a named regional agronomist contact. This is the closest signal we have to "is this variety recommended for the farmer's geography?" but note:

• A variety being absent from a regional listing does not mean it's unsuitable — Bayer's local agronomists curate these lists.
• Listings are vendor-side recommendations, not third-party trial data.
• When the farmer mentions a region, try filtering or scanning for varieties whose regional_recommendations[].product_list_name mentions that region.

Other vendors handle regional placement differently. Golden Harvest publishes a separate "plot report" system per state/year/site; NK publishes ratings as PDF tech sheets without regional flags.

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sources-not-yet-indexed

If list_versions() doesn't show a vendor in the vendor facet, the corpus does not have it yet. Direct the farmer to that vendor's public catalog or their seed dealer.

Already indexed: Bayer (DEKALB / Asgrow / WestBred), Syngenta (Golden Harvest, NK, AgriPro).

Not yet indexed:

• Beck's PFR (research) — 2,089 head-to-head trial documents on the public Sanity GROQ API. Different shape from variety records — these are studies, not hybrids. Surfacing them would benefit a separate tool (e.g. search_pfr_studies) rather than share a corpus with variety identity.
• Beck's products — ~860 products. Identity-only (SeedIQ login gates the ratings).

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trial-data

The MCP exposes TWO complementary surfaces:

• search_docs — variety IDENTITY (what a hybrid IS): disease ratings, trait stack, maturity, vendor positioning.
• search_trials — variety PERFORMANCE (how it ACTUALLY did): ranked yield at specific cooperator fields and regions.

Indexed trial sources:

• Golden Harvest plot reports (~4,600 cross-vendor head-to-head trials, 2024+2025). Each trial = one cooperator's field at a specific state/year, comparing products from multiple brands (NK / DEKALB / Golden Harvest / Enogen / Pioneer / Channel, etc.) side by side. This is the closest thing to independent comparison data the corpus has — Bayer doesn't publish its own trial data, but GH publishes plots where DEKALB hybrids appear alongside their competitors.
• AgriPro regional trial PDFs (14 PDFs) — multi-year multi-location wheat performance for Northern Plains / Pacific Northwest / Plains regions. Variety + per-location yields preserved verbatim.
• LG Seeds + AgriGold plot reports (AgReliant) — additional cross-vendor corn/soy plots (same head-to-head structure as the GH reports).
• ProHarvest Seeds plot reports (corn + soy, 2024+2025) — per-cooperator harvest reports from an independent Corn Belt brand. Many are cross-vendor (ProHarvest / Apex vs Pioneer / DEKALB / Becks / Merschman, etc.). Structured rank/yield/%H2O/test-weight tables where the PDF fits ProHarvest's template; foreign-format third-party reports are kept verbatim (raw_text) so the yields are still searchable. Image-only PDFs (no text layer) are skipped.

Recommended workflow when a farmer asks about performance:

1. Call search_trials(crop, state, year, ...) to find trials from the relevant region/season.
2. Identify the top performers in the rankings.
3. Call lookup_variety(source_key=...) for each leading hybrid to verify identity (RM, traits, disease ratings) — confirm the variety actually fits the farmer's situation, not just that it won someone else's trial.
4. If the leading variety is from a brand whose trial data isn't directly published (e.g. DEKALB), the GH plot reports often show it competing — that's still the agent's best public third-party signal.

Trial data NOT in the corpus (don't fabricate):

• DEKALB / Asgrow / Channel per-variety yield trials — Bayer keeps these in rep tools, not on the public catalog. The GH plot reports surface DEKALB/Asgrow performance indirectly, but per-variety dedicated trials aren't indexed.
• NK yield results — the data exists at syngenta-us.com/nk/yield-results but the ASMX endpoint is fiddly; not yet scraped. The variety identity is in the corpus (search_docs finds it), just not the per-region trial yields.
• Pioneer trials — ToS bans automation, so we have neither variety identity nor trial data. Direct the farmer to a Pioneer dealer.
• University extension trials (Iowa State, Illinois, Purdue, etc.) — third-party trial data that publishes Pioneer
  • competitors. Not in the corpus today; could be added in a future enrichment.

Reading a GH plot report:

Each plot has a cooperator name (the farmer running the trial), a state, a year, planting/harvest dates, population, row width, and a ranked table of products. The columns vary by crop:

• Corn / Soy: Rank | Brand | Product | Traits | Yield BU/Ac | %MST | Test Weight | Gross Revenue
• Silage: Rank | Brand | Product | Traits | Ton/Acre | Milk Per Acre | Milk Per Ton | Beef Per Acre | Beef Per Ton

Rank 1 = top performer at that site/year. Note that a single plot is one data point — for a robust recommendation, look across multiple plots from the same region.

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checking-your-work

Before quoting a specific number to a farmer, always call lookup_variety(source_key=...) to confirm. The chunk text inside a search_docs response is a faithful render of the sidecar, but the sidecar IS the source of truth. Quoting from the canonical sidecar makes you robust against:

• Chunk-text formatting bugs (e.g. a rare unicode issue trimming a value).
• Future chunker changes (a re-index might rewrite the body).
• Cross-vendor scale-direction differences (the sidecar's _scale_direction lets you state the convention explicitly).

If lookup_variety returns "not found" but search_docs surfaced the chunk, that's a bug — please report it. (In normal operation, every chunk's source_key round-trips to a valid sidecar.)