Low cereal prices and poorer yields mean that cereal growers are under severe financial pressure. In response, many farmers continue to look to cut costs. Machinery, land and input costs must come under scrutiny. However, some areas being targeted for potential savings might prove detrimental to crop performance in the short or long term, be a false economy, and so should be avoided.
One such act is the use of home-saved seed. The price of certified seed is very visible and following low harvest prices there is sometimes a negative farmer response to this cost. This gut reaction, while understandable, should be analysed before action is taken.
The seed sown provides the foundation for a successful crop and so it is critical that the grower gets this right. At face value it would seem that farm saved seed is cheaper than certified seed but let us examine this proposition.
Assumptions – crop winter barley
Certified seed is sown at 185 kg/ha. Farm saved seed is frequently sown at a higher seeding rate – say 8.5%, which is 200 kg/ha.
Extra cost
Yes, based on these sums, certified seed will cost the grower more than farm saved seed, approximately €115/t or €8.62 per acre. On a per-acre spend of €494/ac (Teagasc 2016) for variable costs for winter barley, this additional amount equates to 1.7% of this cost. Does this saving represent value? To answer this, we need to enumerate what exactly one gets for the small extra spend on certified seed.
There are two streams of benefits from using certified seed. The first is the actual tangible benefits accruing from this use and the second is the longer term benefit achieved by supporting this system.
Tangible benefits
Certified seed ensures quality under the following headings:
Germination – There is a guaranteed minimum germination rate. Pre- and post-processing testing ensures that certified seed is fit for purpose, especially for winter-sown crops where a quick turnaround is critical.Purity – Stringent sampling and separation procedures ensure varietal purity. This is critical for traceability and ensures success for value-added processes like malting barley or gluten-free oats. It is also very important to ensure that winter varieties are not sown in spring or vice versa, as this would have serious impact on the crops. You get what it says on the label.Purity – Certified seed guarantees very low levels of screening/broken grains. The Irish Seed Trade operate to a much stricter level of purity that other certifying regimes.Purity – Irish certified seed has a zero-tolerance policy for wild oats, sterile brome, blackgrass and canary grass. These weeds are a serious and costly constraint on Irish arable farming and certified seed guarantees minimum levels for all other weed species.Disease status – Certified seed is tested for pathology and the appropriate dressing is applied at the correct rate for the infections present or likely.Multi-treatment – Processors have the facility to dress with a number of treatments according to growers’ requirements. Combinations such as basic fungicide, insecticide, take-all and fertiliser/trace elements are professionally and accurately applied at the manufactures’ recommended rates.Traceability – All the above benefits are guaranteed in certified seed in a traceable system implemented by the Department of Agriculture.Support benefits
Supporting certified seed has wider ramifications than just the tangible benefits listed above.
Royalty payments generated by the certification system are the reward to the breeder for producing new varieties. True, farm seed savers pay royalty but this is at a reduced rate and because of Ireland’s lack of critical mass in our arable industry, the royalties paid by the certification system ensure breeders continue to work on improved varieties for this country. Our certification system keeps us in this important loop.
There are, unfortunately, a number of growers who do not pay royalties. Some of this is because people are not aware of the requirement to do so, but some of the non-payment is done by growers who are actively avoiding paying. These people are jeopardising our industry by withholding contributions that are legally due. They are also placing an unfair proportion of the cost on genuine participants. As accurately pointed out in a TV commercial for a different product, “These people have their hands in your wallet”.
The system of variety and crop evaluation implemented by the Department, in conjunction with ISTA and plant breeders, is a further intangible benefit of certified seed. This system continues to identify varieties that are uniquely successful in Ireland, such as Barra oats or Mickle and Paustian barley. It is critical that we continue to identify potentially successful varieties for this country and support for plant breeders and certified seed helps to ensure this.
Issues with home-saved seed
It must be said that some growers using home-saved seed do a very good job of growing the crop, ensuring its purity and cleanliness, select the best time to harvest, understand the critical nature of drying and storage and then clean and dress appropriately. Such attention to detail can produce good seed with good field performance but it takes time and effort to achieve this.
However, an increasing amount of home-saved seed is not so well managed or treated and this provides a risk to the individual and to the sector as a whole. If undesirable problems like canary grass, meadow brome or blackgrass are not kept out of individual fields, these represent a threat through additional costs to the whole sector. And the more such problems spread, the greater the difficulty in getting suitable land for the production of certified seed.
An even greater risk exists with regard to seed diseases. Thankfully most in the industry are now too young to remember when seed diseases were a very serious issue for producers. Seed dressings have been very successful at keeping these problems away but because they exist in nature they can re-emerge given an opportunity. The practice of planting untreated home-saved seed is the best way to resurrect these problems but this is magnified many fold where this is done for more than one year from the same seed source.
Diseases like loose and covered smut and leaf stripe can move about during the growing season or at harvest with the potential to multiply rapidly within a seed stock. These are potentially devastating diseases if they get a foothold in the crop and growers can be potentially liable if the actions they take threaten the viability of neighbouring growers.
Value for money
In summary, certified seed is the driver of a “value for money” system for the production chain that is highly traceable and guarantees extremely stringent standards. It needs to be supported by all growers to help ensure that we can continue to have high quality seed and support services within the tillage sector in Ireland.
Certified seed costs more per tonne but the cost difference is generally lower on a per-acre basis.Good management of home-saved seed requires considerable time and effort which is not counted in cost.Planting undressed seed presents a considerable risk and repeating the process from the same seed source magnifies this risk considerably.Royalty is payable on all home-saved seed.
Read more
To read the full Certified Seed Focus Supplement, click here.
Low cereal prices and poorer yields mean that cereal growers are under severe financial pressure. In response, many farmers continue to look to cut costs. Machinery, land and input costs must come under scrutiny. However, some areas being targeted for potential savings might prove detrimental to crop performance in the short or long term, be a false economy, and so should be avoided.
One such act is the use of home-saved seed. The price of certified seed is very visible and following low harvest prices there is sometimes a negative farmer response to this cost. This gut reaction, while understandable, should be analysed before action is taken.
The seed sown provides the foundation for a successful crop and so it is critical that the grower gets this right. At face value it would seem that farm saved seed is cheaper than certified seed but let us examine this proposition.
Assumptions – crop winter barley
Certified seed is sown at 185 kg/ha. Farm saved seed is frequently sown at a higher seeding rate – say 8.5%, which is 200 kg/ha.
Extra cost
Yes, based on these sums, certified seed will cost the grower more than farm saved seed, approximately €115/t or €8.62 per acre. On a per-acre spend of €494/ac (Teagasc 2016) for variable costs for winter barley, this additional amount equates to 1.7% of this cost. Does this saving represent value? To answer this, we need to enumerate what exactly one gets for the small extra spend on certified seed.
There are two streams of benefits from using certified seed. The first is the actual tangible benefits accruing from this use and the second is the longer term benefit achieved by supporting this system.
Tangible benefits
Certified seed ensures quality under the following headings:
Germination – There is a guaranteed minimum germination rate. Pre- and post-processing testing ensures that certified seed is fit for purpose, especially for winter-sown crops where a quick turnaround is critical.Purity – Stringent sampling and separation procedures ensure varietal purity. This is critical for traceability and ensures success for value-added processes like malting barley or gluten-free oats. It is also very important to ensure that winter varieties are not sown in spring or vice versa, as this would have serious impact on the crops. You get what it says on the label.Purity – Certified seed guarantees very low levels of screening/broken grains. The Irish Seed Trade operate to a much stricter level of purity that other certifying regimes.Purity – Irish certified seed has a zero-tolerance policy for wild oats, sterile brome, blackgrass and canary grass. These weeds are a serious and costly constraint on Irish arable farming and certified seed guarantees minimum levels for all other weed species.Disease status – Certified seed is tested for pathology and the appropriate dressing is applied at the correct rate for the infections present or likely.Multi-treatment – Processors have the facility to dress with a number of treatments according to growers’ requirements. Combinations such as basic fungicide, insecticide, take-all and fertiliser/trace elements are professionally and accurately applied at the manufactures’ recommended rates.Traceability – All the above benefits are guaranteed in certified seed in a traceable system implemented by the Department of Agriculture.Support benefits
Supporting certified seed has wider ramifications than just the tangible benefits listed above.
Royalty payments generated by the certification system are the reward to the breeder for producing new varieties. True, farm seed savers pay royalty but this is at a reduced rate and because of Ireland’s lack of critical mass in our arable industry, the royalties paid by the certification system ensure breeders continue to work on improved varieties for this country. Our certification system keeps us in this important loop.
There are, unfortunately, a number of growers who do not pay royalties. Some of this is because people are not aware of the requirement to do so, but some of the non-payment is done by growers who are actively avoiding paying. These people are jeopardising our industry by withholding contributions that are legally due. They are also placing an unfair proportion of the cost on genuine participants. As accurately pointed out in a TV commercial for a different product, “These people have their hands in your wallet”.
The system of variety and crop evaluation implemented by the Department, in conjunction with ISTA and plant breeders, is a further intangible benefit of certified seed. This system continues to identify varieties that are uniquely successful in Ireland, such as Barra oats or Mickle and Paustian barley. It is critical that we continue to identify potentially successful varieties for this country and support for plant breeders and certified seed helps to ensure this.
Issues with home-saved seed
It must be said that some growers using home-saved seed do a very good job of growing the crop, ensuring its purity and cleanliness, select the best time to harvest, understand the critical nature of drying and storage and then clean and dress appropriately. Such attention to detail can produce good seed with good field performance but it takes time and effort to achieve this.
However, an increasing amount of home-saved seed is not so well managed or treated and this provides a risk to the individual and to the sector as a whole. If undesirable problems like canary grass, meadow brome or blackgrass are not kept out of individual fields, these represent a threat through additional costs to the whole sector. And the more such problems spread, the greater the difficulty in getting suitable land for the production of certified seed.
An even greater risk exists with regard to seed diseases. Thankfully most in the industry are now too young to remember when seed diseases were a very serious issue for producers. Seed dressings have been very successful at keeping these problems away but because they exist in nature they can re-emerge given an opportunity. The practice of planting untreated home-saved seed is the best way to resurrect these problems but this is magnified many fold where this is done for more than one year from the same seed source.
Diseases like loose and covered smut and leaf stripe can move about during the growing season or at harvest with the potential to multiply rapidly within a seed stock. These are potentially devastating diseases if they get a foothold in the crop and growers can be potentially liable if the actions they take threaten the viability of neighbouring growers.
Value for money
In summary, certified seed is the driver of a “value for money” system for the production chain that is highly traceable and guarantees extremely stringent standards. It needs to be supported by all growers to help ensure that we can continue to have high quality seed and support services within the tillage sector in Ireland.
Certified seed costs more per tonne but the cost difference is generally lower on a per-acre basis.Good management of home-saved seed requires considerable time and effort which is not counted in cost.Planting undressed seed presents a considerable risk and repeating the process from the same seed source magnifies this risk considerably.Royalty is payable on all home-saved seed.
Read more
To read the full Certified Seed Focus Supplement, click here.
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