By Dr. John E. Baylor Director of Market Development Beachley-Hardy Seed Company Let’s Talk Seed Quality Forage specialists agree that failure. high quality seed of adapted Seed Quality—What Is It? species, varieties and mixtures is a Quality in seed can be related to very important spoke in your the genetic quality, germination profitable forage wheel. And while and mechanical purity of a given it’s important for all crops, it’s seed lot or the vitality of the in especially important with small dividual seed. Let’s take a brief seeded legumes and grasses such lode at each of these starting with as alfalfa and bromegrass. Seeds germination, of these species are very small and By definition germination refers contain very little stored food to the resumption of active growth material. Thus, unless you start by the embryo in a seed when with quality seed and then follow conditions are favorable, generally up with good seeding practices, resulting in a normal plant, you can end up with a seeding Germination of live seeds CALL ABE FISHER ’ fclkZv TO JOIN OUR Xp^Hl-PERFORMANCE TEAM! • PIC Breeding Stock Camborough Gilts & Backline Boars • Super Sow Lactation Chow® Feed To Heavy Milking Sows Hi-O® 2.6, Grower & Finisher Top Rate Of Gain & Feed Efficiency During Hot Weather. Farm Fresh Feeder Pigs Sow Contracts Available Money Management Finishing Hog Contracts Available Contact Your farm ContuUmJ: For Mora Information 6 S. Vintage Rd. Paradise, PA 17562 (717)442-4183 (717)768-3301 Registered trademark of Ralston Purina Company kssMhis W Bl * | PURINA [HOWS | requires: (1) a permeable seed coat, (2) sufficient air, (3) favorable temperature, and (4) sufficient moisture. A fifth requirement, light, is also essential for many grass seeds as well as certain other crop seeds. Mechanical purity refers to the percentage of pure seed, inert matter, other crop seed and weed seed. A frequent major limitation, for example, of home grown seed is that, based on many surveys, it’s likely to contain excessive amounts of weed seeds and other foreign material and be of low mechanical purity. Seeds of some of the warm season grasses, such as switch grass and the bluestems, because of their charac teristics,tend to be low in both germination and physical or mechanical purity. These are usually sold on the basis of pure live seed (PLS), which takes into consideration both germination and purity. A seed with good vitality is one that not only germinates but also produces a seedling capable of developing into an adult plant. Many factors affect vitality, in cluding vigor of parent plants, climatic conditions while the seed is maturing, seed maturity at harvest, seed storage conditions and age of seed. Genetic quality, of course, refers to how well the variety you plant Rt. 82 Unionviile, PA 18375 (215)347-2377 will perform for you over its entire stand life. That’s where improved varieties with good tolerance or resistance to the major pests that attack the crop really shine. Research has proven, for example, that over time a variety with good over-all pest tolerance or resistance for a given area will outperform the variety with high resistance to one pest, but with low or no resistance to others. Plant breeders call this multiple pest resistance. Certified Seed Historically, buying certified seed has been a good way to be sure you are getting the quality seed you pay for. And seed cer tification played a major role in setting seed quality standards for most major seed crops during the development of our great U.S. seed industry. Certified seed is of known heredity, identified as to variety, and traceable through records to a specific lot of breeder seed. It’s especially important with publicly developed varieties. Today, however, many private seed fRKAD LANCASTER FARMING FOR COMPLETE AND UP-TO-DATE MARKET REPORTS 7IMMERMAN ■sskrs? 717-354-9611 MANUFACTURING CORP. CALL FOR PRICES AND YOUR LOCAL DEALER UTILITY TRAILERS Zimmerman Rugged m , iA> Heavy Duty Wagon Gear Available in 6,8 &10 ton sizes. p \ Also 12 ton tandem axle unit. 'i Options include adjustable quick hitch tongue, various size wheels and tires. ZIMMERMAN 4K AUGER SYSTEMS IB '‘v,. FOR EMPTYING ”> . Bfe MANURE PITS W Efficient, Economical and requires less |PV Horsepower than most systems Stationary or Portable Lancaster Fannin*, Saturday, January 24,1987-Al9 companies with their own varieties have their own excellent quality control programs equal to or superior to those of public cer tifying agencies. The Plant Variety Protection Act (PVPA) passed several years ago offers further protection for named varieties of sexually reproduced plants such as alfalfa for which a certificate has been duly issued pursuant to the act. The Federal Seed Act makes it unlawful to sell non-certified seeds of a variety certified under the PVPA. Figuring Seed Worth Under any circumstances seed is a very small part of the total cost of growing a crop. In the Penn sylvania Alfalfa Growers Program, for example, seed cost represented less than 3% percent of the annual cost of growing the crop. Thus, the bottom line for you should be what will the return on investment be for a given variety over its stand life? not what does seed cost per pound or unit. Cheap seed may indeed turn out to be the most costly in the long run. AIR-O-MATIC VENTILATION SYSTEMS - * j « ;ile, ical OR i-i Wall Fan With Hood And Painted Galvanized Cabinets • Rust Resistant For Long And 'om Life • Sizes 20” Thru 48” Direct Drive Variable Speed And Belt Drive (w/Ball Bearing High Efficiency Motor) Models Available Gross Cap. 3,000 to 24,000 lbs. Variety of Sizes Made to Order Stationary
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