The availability of certified seed has a big part to play in the annual makeup of a crop area. Seed is multiplied every year but there are times when some of these crops are lost as a result of weather impacts or other misadventure.

Occasionally in the past we had relatively little natively produced certified seed available which resulted in seed being imported in order to get crops in the ground.

There is an increasing awareness of the standards that apply to Irish certified seed, especially with regard to our near neighbours in England where blackgrass is such a big problem.

Now that we are increasingly aware of the risk associated with blackgrass, there is an increasing awareness of the risks of imported seed, not to talk of imported straw or non-certified grain.

Spring barley

Looking at native seed availability for the coming season, it would seem that there will be enough seed overall but will there be enough for each specific crop or indeed any individual variety?

During summer, it is common to be told the rough make-up of variety availability for the coming season.

These figures generally relate to the areas sown but different varieties might suffer more or less loss at harvest for one reason or another.

Figures recently given to me by the seed trade (ISTA) show the actual availability of cleaned seed which will closely govern certified seed availability for this spring.

It looks like the total spring barley seed availability for 2018 will be about 1,650t higher than for 2017 so, on the face of it, there should be more than enough seed. However, with less winter crops planted and possibly better prospects for barley next year, overall spring barley supply could be tight.

Whether or not additional winter wheat gets planted this spring is one factor that could influence this but so will any further downward movement in total cereal area.

Over half the available spring barley seed is of two varieties, Planet and Mickle.

Twelve others make up the balance and three of these show as zero percentage in Figure 1 because they account for less than 0.5% each.

Some of these varieties are not on the recommended list but there is still seed available and some are mainly used for malting.

Spring oats

Spring oat seed availability is fractionally higher than last year and over 60% of the seed is for Husky. There is also a significant amount of Keely available (32%) plus 5% Barra and smaller amounts of Binary and Yukon (see Figure 2).

Spring wheat

There are only two spring wheat varieties recommended and that is also all there is seed availability for.

These varieties are Doubleshot and Quintus, with the latter accounting for 61% of the certified seed availability (see Figure 3).

Spring beans

The final crop for immediate planting will be spring beans. The recommended list has three varieties but there is no seed available for Fuego.

This means that all the seed supply will be made up of Boxer and Fanfare in about equal proportions (see Figure 4).

However, given the bad weather in the autumn and the late harvest it is hardly surprising that an amount of the seed crops was lost to certification.

The numbers indicate that the 2018 Irish certified seed availability is only about 70% of last year’s level so seed could be tight.

Imports are possible but there is an increasing reluctance to import seed. So people intending to grow beans should consider securing their seed early in the spring as there is much less risk of crops not being planted on time that there was 10 years ago as sowing date is seen as being less critical.