Importance of Certified Seed

By Hamish Mulcock, Portfolio Manager, PGG Wrightson Seeds

When purchasing seed this spring an important question should be “is this seed certified”?

Certified seed means you are buying seed that has pass minimum standards for germination and purity. Prior to harvest certified seed crops are inspected by AsureQuality to confirm the variety and check for any problem weeds and isolation problems that could contaminate harvested seed. Following harvest and cleaning a representative sample is submitted to a seed testing laboratory where further testing for germination and purity is completed.

Germination testing provides an indication of the seeds potential to germinate in standardised conditions, generally seed including ryegrass needs to have greater than 90% germination in this test.

Purity testing ensures the seed is free from other material including weed seed and chaff.

Endophyte testing, although not part of the official certification scheme, is also completed to ensure that seed contains a minimum of 70% endophyte.  

If seed isn’t certified and sold as ‘uncertified’ or ‘variety not specified’ (VNS) there is no guarantee around what variety, species, germination, purity or endophyte you’re buying. With so much effort going into preparing and drilling paddocks poor seed quality is the last thing you need!

For more information on our range of certified seed talk to one of our team today.