Compared to most geographies Australia has a long planting season for summer crop, stretching from August through to March. To fit this planting window farmers have a large choice of summer crop species they can switch between, often at short notice, due to rain or market signals. It is expected that inventory will be available to meet demand. This paper attempts to provide a broad overview of the factors considered by seed companies leading up to commercial seed production, including product development lead time, production risks, inventory and product lifecycle management. New product development is a balance of risk and reward in terms of the potential hectares sown, seed retail price and consistency of the market year in year out. Seed increase is mainly done under supplementary or full irrigation to assure seed yield, seed size and germination quality. Production risk is typically shared between seed company and seed grower. Competition for irrigated land tends to drive up the cost per tonne as companies compete with each other and high value crops such as Cotton, sugarcane or vegetables. Managing seed inventory takes into account whether to produce ahead of time and store or opt for “just in time” (JIT) production. Is it possible to predict the market versus competing crops? The price of getting any of this wrong is carryover inventory of a high cost, living product which has a predictable life span. It said among Seedsman that “Inventory is the biggest killer of seed companies”. Seed products also have “lifecycles” and need to be managed in the context of new products coming through the company R&D “pipeline” and competitor activity in that market segment.