A seed testing firm says farmers could be in for a nasty surprise when their crops emerge this spring after planting poor quality seed into cold and disease-ridden soil.
“In the 20 years that we’ve been doing this, this is the worst seed supply that we’ve ever seen,” said Bruce Carriere, owner of Discovery Seed Labs Ltd.
Average germination levels on samples tested at his lab were 15 to 20 percent lower than normal. Disease levels on cereal grain were five times higher than usual.
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Growers who tested their seed at an accredited lab should be able to compensate for those shortcomings by applying seed treatments and increasing seeding rates. However, that’s only 20 to 25 percent of farmers.
Most growers either don’t bother testing their seed or use questionable home testing procedures. This is a bad year for that approach.
“There’s going to be a lot of surprises out there this year,” said Carriere.
“There’s going to be some wrecks out there like you wouldn’t believe.”
The biggest red flag is for malting barley. One of Carriere’s clients carried over a bin that had a germination level of 99 percent last spring. He was shocked to discover it had since plummeted to 45 percent.
That grower at least knows what he’s dealing with. Others could be proceeding under false assumptions.
“A lot of guys will do home tests, but they have this mistaken thought that if it sprouts it’s going to be a good germination,” Carriere said.
“Well, just because it sprouts doesn’t mean anything.”
A grower recently asked Carriere for advice on seeding rates for pea seed that had a germination level of 85 percent three years ago when tested at an accredited lab.
The farmer said the same seed showed a 100 percent germination level in a recently conducted home test.
“(Germination) doesn’t get better with age. If anything, it’s going to go the other way,” said Carriere.
Farmers who home test are attempting to do the same work of an analyst with three years of training.
“The guys at home doing a few samples are not looking at the same thing we are,” he said.
Growers who don’t properly understand germination and disease levels could be in for a shock when they plant this year’s vulnerable seed into cold soil that is likely loaded with disease inoculum from a wet 2010 growing season.
Grant McLean, cropping management specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture, shared those concerns.
“There is going to be people that are wondering why they have such a wimpy crop come July with all this good moisture to start things.”
McLean said diseases such as botrytis and fusarium will be prevalent in 2011.
Seed treatments can offer some protection, but they are not the panacea of disease prevention because some producers lack the proper equipment or know-how to properly apply them.
“If you don’t get uniform coverage with the product, it just isn’t going to work as well,” he said.
McLean is particularly concerned about the quality of this year’s barley, durum, lentils and peas.
He suspects part of this year’s seeding delay is due to producers waiting until their soil warms up because they know they’ve got poor quality seed.
Seeds take longer to germinate in cold soil, allowing disease to get a jump on the crop and kill the seedlings before they emerge from the ground.
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