Three things producers can do to ensure their seed is ready for this spring are test, test and treat.
Germination and vigour are way down this year in farm-saved seed and seed growers say their stocks are in short supply.
The late start to the season kept producers off their fields until late May and early June 2010 if they reached them at all, resulting in late crops and limited acres.
Bruce Carriere of Discovery Seed Labs, speaking at the March 16 University of Saskatchewan Soils and Crops event in Saskatoon, said disease and physical damage to seed are at the highest levels he has seen in 19 years in the testing business.
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Discovery has for the first time found infections of all five major lentil diseases in a single sample.
Fusarium graminearum is present in all crop districts in Saskatchewan and in some areas, such as north of Yorkton, Sask., it is at levels that until now in Western Canada have been restricted to regions of southern Manitoba.
Carriere warns producers that due to damp grains and oilseeds and poor weather conditions when seed was stored last fall, samples that were taken at the time and kept in seed sheds, shops or houses will not likely be representative of what is in the bin today.
“We really need to be pulling new samples and testing them ahead of planting to get an accurate idea of what is going into the field,” he said.
What appeared to be minor bran frost damage last fall is turning out to have a much greater effect on quality than was anticipated.
Spring wheat and durum are in very poor shape with fusarium, frost and loss of condition, resulting in generally poor germination and vigour.
It is the vigour test that is causing the greatest concern for Carriere, as some germination levels in 2010 seed might be acceptable, but the same seed turns out to have very poor vigour.
Faye Dokken-Bouchard, the Saskatchewan provincial crop disease specialist, said disease pressure is going to be very high this spring.
“It’s in the seed, on the seed and in the field and the wet, cool soils will be ideal for disease. Seedlings without good vigour will be in a lot of trouble,” she said.
Seed treatment sales are at record levels, say farm chemical companies.
The late 2010 harvested crop means Carriere is seeing “some absolute garbage” coming into his lab for testing, especially in lentils.
“We saw our first zero germination score ever,” he said. “Don’t try to salvage the bad stuff.”
Carryover seed from 2009 is improving overall quality scores.
Carriere said a rule of thumb is when the vigour score and germination percentage are more than 10 points apart, producers should find another seed supply.
The good news is that due to the likelihood of unseeded acres some late season supplies of higher quality seed should be available.
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