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Why Grade Seed
Why Grade Seed
Grading your seed for planting next season is the most important part of a successful farming program in Australia. Eliminating any possible diseases at the early stage makes financial sense. The aim of farmers is to have the biggest yield on their farms. Having a professionally applied quality seed dressing will discourage diseases & also enhance crop development increasing the yield.
Various trials conducted by the Department of Agriculture in Western Australia has proven that the percentage of large germinated seeds has a smaller loss in emergence. Of the large quality seeds planted, 95% germinated and of this, 85% emerged. However when using smaller seeds of lesser quality, although only 91% germinated, there was only 72 % emergence. This is not an acceptable outcome for farmers which just shows that having your seed graded professionally is a sure way of producing high quality crops.
Using the experience and knowledge gathered over many years, Walco Seed Cleaning can have all your wheat, oats, barley, peas, beans, canola and other broadacre seeds expertly cleaned and graded ready to produce the crops you desire. Not only have many of the farmers in the area found that using this service saves them large amounts of money but leaves their seed ready for the next planting season. Consistently producing quality crops is what the farming industry is all about.
Although cleaning and dressing the seeds for disease control is the core business of Kurt and his team from Walco Seed Cleaning, they also specialise in crop enhancing seed treatment such as Zinc and the application of multi-trace elements. These applications will boost the yield of the crop and produce healthy seeds for the next season.
Crop diseases are one of the biggest disasters that a farmer will encounter as they can effectively reduce the yield by as much as 30%. Not only is this financially devastating, but the seeds for the next season may also be affected and their quality not suitable for resowing. The biggest threats come from Smuts & Bunts to Rusts of various strains. Having Walco Seed Cleaning apply a good seed dressing can eliminate this possible threat.
Improve Emergence Rate
Trials conducted by the Department of Agriculture in Western Australia found the follow:
Small seeds had a 91% germination rate but only a 72% emergence rate
Large seeds had a 95% germination rate and an 85% emergence rate
This study found that large seeds yielded a 75% greater crop than small seeds:
“Plants from small seeds yielded approximately 77% of those grown from large seeds in the greenhouse and 57% in the field…Superior production mainly resulted from a greater number of heads on plants grown from larger seeds.”
Kaufmann and McFadden (1960) Alberta, Canada Barley
This graph shows the cost per hectare of various practices employed in a typical growing program. You can easily see grading of seed is very low cost compared with other factors: [graph from whitepaper]
The closer farmers can get to 100% emergence, the higher yields and profits will be and at the same time, will lower input costs. There’s no reason why poor quality seed should be planted. Fortunately this can be easily controlled by implementing the professional services of Walco Seed Cleaning.
Fight Diseases from the Start
As a seed grading operator, Kurt has seen first hand the heartache of not having your seed treated. Diseases in crops can have disastrous results, reducing the yield by up to 30%. These diseases are well recognized, from Smuts & Bunts to Rust of various strains and Rhizoctonia. All these problems can be suppressed or avoided completely simply by having good quality seed dressing professionally applied to your seed.
Use Trace Elements to Boost Results
In addition to disease inhibiting dressings, there are also crop enhancing seed treatments such as Zinc and multi-trace elements which will potentially boost your crop yield and vigor. All this can be applied & supplied by Walco Seed Cleaning.
Not only can you have your wheat, oats, barley, peas, beans etc cleaned, you can also have your canola seed cleaned. Many farmers in the district are now finding that by engaging the services of Walco Seed Cleaning, they are able to save money by having their canola seed expertly treated and ready for planting the next season.