FROM THE GROUND UP
Agronomy News

Plant the best seed for success on your farm

By Brad Erker, Director of Colorado Seed Programs at CSU

What’s so special about certified seed?

The CSU Wheat Team traveled Eastern Colorado the week of August 13 th to hold the annual Wheat Planting Decision Meetings. One of the topics we discussed was the process used to certify wheat seed. A question that came up was “Is certified seed better than bin-run, or farmer-saved seed?”

Short answer: Good wheat seed can be grown on any farm with clean ground if the right methods are used. But it takes a lot of meticulous work to produce seed the way a certified seed grower does. The Colorado Seed Growers Association provides assurance to farmers that the certified seed they’re buying is a high quality product.

The certified seed system uses limited generations to ensure that the seed farmers are purchasing is never more than three generations removed from the seed controlled by the plant breeder. The progression of seed classes goes from Breeder seed, to Foundation seed, then to Registered seed, and finally to Certified class seed, the class where enough seed has been produced to be widely available to farmers all over the state.

The process starts two to three years in advance as the seed grower plans his crop rotations. CSGA standards require at least one year of fallow, or a crop other than wheat, on a field that will be used to grow Certified class seed. Two years out of wheat are required to produce the Registered class of seed.

The next requirement seed growers must meet is to plant an approved seed source. Only Foundation or Registered seed can be planted to produce the Certified class of seed. CSGA verifies seed source on all fields by requiring proof via a bag tag or verifiable certification number.

During June and July, the CSGA office is busy inspecting each and every field that is producing certified seed. We have a team of trained inspectors that physically walk every field and assess it against CSGA standards. One of the main goals of certified seed is to maintain the characteristics designed by the breeder all the way through to the certified class of seed. This includes traits such as disease resistance, yield ability, and milling and baking qualities. To this end, we have an upper limit of 1:1000 other varieties. This means that we are very strict about purity – only one tenth of one percent of the plants in the field can be an off-type. We also look for noxious weeds like rye, jointed goatgrass, and bindweed. All of our field standards are publicly available and can be found on the web at www.seeds.colostate.edu under the CSGA page. Feral rye, one of the main weed nemeses of wheat growers, has zero tolerance at the field inspection.

Next, the seed growers carefully manage harvesting, storage, and cleaning of the seed. Combines are cleaned down between varieties to maintain varietal purity. Seed bins are kept clean and separate from grain production, with designated bins for each different variety. The seed must be cleaned by an Approved Conditioner, a full member of CSGA whose plant has been approved by our office to clean certified seed. Seed samples are pulled to be sent in for analysis by an official lab. All of these steps require additional work and inputs on the part of the seed growers.

All certified seedlots must be tested for germination and purity by an approved seed testing laboratory. Most of the certified wheat seed gets tested by the Colorado Seed Laboratory at the CSU campus. Wheat must germinate at a rate of at least 85% to meet standards. The seeds are grown in an incubator for about a week to ensure they will sprout when you put them in your field. Seedlots are also analyzed for purity, which must be at least 98%. We also have standards for other crop seed, inert matter, noxious weeds, and many others. Any seedlot found to contain a noxious weed seed, rye, or jointed goatgrass seed is rejected. Again, the CSGA seed standards can be found at the website listed above.

Once a certified seedlot has passed all of the steps listed above, we issue a certification number. This number is generated only by our computer system, and is your proof as a consumer that the seed growers have met all of the standards. The cert number is printed on the blue Certified seed tags or Bulk Sales Certificates that you receive when you purchase Certified seed.

Growing certified seed is like passing a test where 99% is still a failing grade. It takes 100% to pass the test and get the seed certified. Remember this when you consider what seed to plant this fall.

CSGA field inspector Trent Lundquist inspects a field of Ankor wheat for Certified seed.