Dismal growing conditions across much of the Prairies last year is expected to result in the poorest-quality certified seed supply in recent memory.
Bruce Carriere of Discovery Seed Labs in Saskatoon said that based on seed tests conducted for farmers this winter, pedigreed seed germination is down.
Carriere told farmers attending the Saskatchewan Seed Growers Association Annual meeting in Saskatoon Jan. 8 that “this year the seed we are seeing doesn’t look pretty.”
He said durum germination is about 75 percent in 2002 seed compared to 93 percent in an average year, spring wheat 85 percent compared to an average 97 percent, field peas 82 percent compared to 90 percent, lentils 75 percent compared to 94 percent and barley 71 percent compared to 97 percent. While canola’s germination is 92.5 percent compared to an average of 98 percent, Carriere said seedling vigor is questionable.
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“The seed people are looking for is old crop and that is running out.”
He said his company is seeing a dramatic increase in samples of all types of grain, including a higher-than-average percentage of tests on common seed.
“I can see a lot more common seed going in the ground this year,” he said.
“We are seeing (fewer) samples of pedigreed seed than usual. And some of that seed has been tested two or three times. That tells me that seed growers took off a difficult crop.”
Carriere said that so far this year barley appears to be in the worst shape.
“(AC) Metcalfe (barley) is running about 76.4 (percentage of germination) this year. The ’02 crop is 69.9, the ’01 crop is 98 and the ’00 crop is 91.6. That shows us the kind of year it’s been and what to look for in 2003.”
Carriere said his lab normally gets only occasional calls from commercial grain producers looking for pedigreed AC Metcalfe barley seed.
“It was like that a couple of months ago. Now they are calling asking if we know of anybody that has common Metcalfe. That never happens,” he said.
“There is a huge shortage of certified barley.”
In addition to weather damage, his lab is also seeing glyphosate damage to cereal seed. As the 2002 growing year dragged on, producers were forced to either spray out damaged early crops or desiccate later crops with glyphosate.
“It germinates and then we see (glyphosate) problems. Short, stunted roots. We know what causes that.”
Carriere expects durum acres will increase dramatically this year, although limited by the supply of good seed. Red lentil acres will be up, while green lentil acreage will fall slightly. Barley acreage should either remain steady or fall because of the seed shortage. He expects chickpeas will fall to 175,000 acres from 500,000 acres. Wheat plantings should be up this year.
“And canola, I don’t know where that seed will come from in 2003. They are predicting more acres than I think there may be seed for,” Carriere said.
In the eastern Prairies, where good seed crops were harvested, disease was a problem.
“Everything has disease in it. So everybody will have to treat the seed they have.”
