Producers who want to plant top yielding canola varieties or the latest varieties of other grain and oilseed should go shopping soon.
Seed growers attending the Saskatchewan Seed Growers (SSGA) annual meeting at Crop Production Week in Saskatoon Jan. 9 said supplies of the most recent releases of herbicide tolerant canola hybrids are tight and many are sold out.
Producers looking for oats and barley are encouraged to buy their seed soon, they said.
SSGA president Joe Rennick of Milestone, Sask., said seed quality and supply is good, with some exceptions.
Read Also
VIDEO: Green Lightning and Nytro Ag win sustainability innovation award
Nytro Ag Corp and Green Lightning recieved an innovation award at Ag in Motion 2025 for the Green Lightning Nitrogen Machine, which converts atmospheric nitrogen into a plant-usable form.
Dry conditions in the southern Prairies reduced yields of seed crops but created excellent harvest conditions, which partially offset the effects of the drought.
Higher moisture in central and northeastern Saskatchewan and in Alberta in the foothills and north of Calgary to the Peace River district reduced seed production and created potential problems with quality.
Early fall rain, especially in those areas, may have a lasting impact on seed quality.
Bruce Carriere of Discovery Seed Labs in Saskatoon said seed growers and commercial producers whose crops were hit by harvest rain should back up earlier season germination tests with new ones.
“We are seeing some germination slip. It’s worth making the most of higher grain prices by knowing exactly what you’re planting or selling.”
University of Saskatchewan plant breeder Brian Rossnagel said malting barley plots and crops hit by fall rain didn’t show the visual sprouting last fall that’s usually seen after harvest season rain.
“Normally if we get rain on malt barley at that time of year you see roots hanging out the (barley) heads. We didn’t see it. But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a lot of germination damage. (Germination) tests done now are telling us that it was worse than we first thought … and I wouldn’t count on seedling vigour from those crops. I’d be retesting.”
Bob Mastin of Mastin Seeds in Sundre, Alta., isn’t taking any chances with his commercial release of the new high yielding barley, Sundre, or with stocks of Mustang oats grown in 2007.
“I’m recommending any of the seed growers I work with, unless they were in the drier areas, to apply seed treatment to those stocks. To commercial buyers, I wouldn’t want them planting this spring without seed treatment. There is lots of disease out there that doesn’t show up in the average seed test. You need the $100 test to find out if some of the nasty fungus and stuff that’s out there is in your grain.”
Mastin said with grain prices high and producers looking for the best varieties, he doesn’t want to see his new release’s reputation damaged by disease.
“Like any responsible seed grower I wouldn’t want (seed) going out the door without a good (germination test result) and good vigour (test result), but if there ever was a year to back up that with an investment in seed treatment, this is it,” he said.
“For commercial producers it’s the chance to make some profits this year. For the seed grower it’s your long-term reputation that’s still most important.”
Carriere said his lab is seeing lower than average fusarium head blight in cereals and ascochyta in field peas and lentils.
