Seed growers across the West report that seed quality and quantity for spring 2006 are highly variable and sales remain sluggish.
Terry Rempel of Springstein, Man., said the wet weather that plagued much of southern Manitoba last year caused headaches for seed growers this winter.
“Small kernels, light weight oats. Some flax that didn’t mature if it survived. The usual fusarium problems we have here. It is a tough year to get a handle on,” he said about the Manitoba market.
Perhaps the biggest problem comes from a lack of sales. Commercial growers facing poor commodity prices are waiting to make their seed buying decisions.
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“We find producers are even waiting to see what sort of coverage they will get from crop insurance. They want to be able to minimize their exposure to the market this year so until crop insurance programs give them indication of coverage levels, they don’t want to start making cropping choices,” Rempel said.
Despite low inventories of seed, prices have remained about average in Manitoba for most crops. There may be exceptions later in the season for oats, wheat and flax.
Growers with those cereals are forced to clean out as much as 35 percent for small seed size and this drives up prices.
Markets for screenings are soft, adding to price pressure.
“Some seed growers are having to source seed from western Manitoba and Saskatchewan and with transportation costs up, that’s pushing up seed costs.”
Rempel expects to see producers keep costs down this spring by planting lower input crops such as pulses, oats and flax.
“That adds to the price for those crops. Or it will add to them once producers decide to start buying seed,” he said.
“Oats are in that $4.50 to $5.25 range while wheats are running about $6.50,” he said.
Seed grower Shaun Haney of Picture Butte, Alta., agreed that producers are delaying seed decisions.
“Cash flow issues for a lot of producers and the sentiment that ‘nothing will make any money, so why hurry’ are delaying seed buying decisions.”
Haney said seed germination so far has been good despite less than ideal looking grain.
“Some of the seed isn’t as pretty as we’d like, but it seems to be germinating well. We had a couple fields that didn’t make it on germination tests, but mostly it was good,” he said.
Haney said some Alberta seed producers were caught by poor fall weather, but overall, he sees good supplies and quality.
Early demand has been limited to some of the specific varieties and new releases such as the Secan AC Strongfield durum and semi-solid stem wheat AC Lillian.
Bruce Carriere of Discovery Seed Labs in Saskatoon said overall the industry is about five weeks behind normal due to the late fall harvest.
“We are seeing some seed germination issues, especially with barley harvested north of a line stretching from southern Manitoba to Yorkton to Saskatoon and through Biggar on into central Alberta,” he said.
“South of that line there is some gorgeous looking seed with excellent germination.”
He said some crops have had germination damage due to being slightly damp when entering grain bins and little cold weather to cool the seed.
Carriere said Fusarium graminearum levels appear to be lower in Saskatchewan than average.
Rempel warns producers about waiting too long to order seed.
“Seed growers won’t be waiting to make sales locally at the last minute this year. If somebody pulls into the driveway with a chequebook, that seed is going to be gone in a hurry,” he said.
