Prairie seeds are well-treated these days.
Every year, more farmers are treating more seed with products designed to improve germination, give seedlings a good start and protect the plants from disease and insects.
The people who sell seed treatment products say they have an “invisible value” and express confidence that the more farmers learn about the benefits, the more they’ll do it.
But some crop specialists say not all seed needs to be treated.
“I wouldn’t say do it as a matter of course,” said Penny Pearse, plant disease specialist for Saskatchewan Agriculture.
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“If money is not an issue, then sure, seed treatments are a good bang for your buck, but these days producers are questioning all their inputs and that’s a good idea.”
Some in the seed treatment industry says it is something prairie grain farmers should do routinely.
“There is no downside, in my opinion, to applying good seed treatment,” said Ferdie Schneidersmann, head of seed treatments for Syngenta. At worst, he said, it’s a relatively inexpensive form of crop insurance.
That kind of blanket statement raises concerns among crop specialists and research scientists, who say it’s not that simple.
They agree seed treatment can be a useful production tool, but caution that it isn’t always necessary. Before farmers spend the money, they should take a number of factors into account, including seed quality, weather, soil conditions, crop rotations and the variety being grown.
They also warn farmers to be wary of some of the touted benefits of treated seed.
“The seed treatment industry has been extremely aggressive,” said Myriam Fernandez, a plant pathologist at the Agriculture Canada research station in Swift Current, Sask.
“Some of them have come up with claims that in some cases are not true, period, and in other cases are confusing and not very clear to producers.”
Seed treatment definitely has value, she said, but people have to realize what it can and cannot do.
On the rise
According to industry estimates, about 90 percent of prairie canola seed, 60 percent of barley seed and 40 percent of wheat seed is treated before it goes into the ground, either by the seed distributor or the farmer. The amount of treated wheat has been estimated as increasing by five percent annually.
A number of reasons are cited for that growth:
- More companies are manufacturing and selling seed treatments, so there is more advertising and promotion.
- The more the product is used, the more aware farmers become of the benefits of healthier stands and higher yields.
- Farmers are growing more specialty crops, which are treated at a much higher rate than cereals.
- Crop rotations are being stretched, creating more potential for disease problems.
- Farmers worried about fusarium are using treated seed to fight seed rot and seedling blight related to fusarium.
- More crops are being seeded early into wet, cool soil, often with minimum tillage, which produces an ideal environment for soil-borne pathogens.
Fred Hnatiw, general manager for the Canadian operations of Gustafson Partnership, said farmers are starting to realize that seed treatment is their least costly, and potentially most important, crop input.
Ironically, he said, that low cost has worked against the products.
“It’s such a small portion of growers’ overall input costs that he doesn’t spend much time thinking about it,” he said, adding that farmers can easily see the value of fertilizer and herbicide, but have more trouble identifying the benefits from treated seed.
