Seed companies encourage farmers to buy certified seed every year to avoid loss of yield from bin-saved seed.
The Irrigation Crop Development Centre (ICDC) performed wheat yield trials this year comparing bin saved seed with certified seed.
The bin saved seed was two years removed from planted certified seed.
“The bin saved seed was as good, if not better than the certified seed,” head researcher Gary Hnatowich of ICDC told the Saskatchewan Irrigation Projects Association conference in Moose Jaw.
Saving their own seed saves farmers on cost of certified seed.
The centre’s 4,400 plus plots included 90 in wheat, 14 in durum, 18 in barley and 13 in oats.
In oilseeds there were 35 canola plots, 20 flax and three soybeans as well as 70 herbicide-tolerant soybean plots.
Three special purpose wheat varieties for ethanol and feed were planted.
Ron Walter can be reached at [email protected]
