Seed Notes April 2010

Members Meeting

All members are invited to attend the annual CCIA member’s meeting on May 27, 2010 at 9:00 am in the Prato Room of the Parsons Seed Certification Center building on the UC Davis campus. If you plan to attend, please contact Kitty Schlosser at 530-752-6979 or meschlosser@ ucdavis.edu. We need to make sure there are seats available for all attending. There is no registration fee; travel and lodging expenses are the responsibility of the member.

Spotlight on Bean Standards

Conditioners should require the seed laboratory to perform proper testing and report complete test results for all CCIA Crop Standard requirements. The CCIA Standards use criteria in addition to the AOSA Seed Testing Report of Analysis data.

Typical report data includes:

  • Pure Seed
  • Inert Matter
  • Other Crop
  • Weeds
  • Noxious Weeds
  • Measures of viability
  • Germination and hard seed

The additional Bean Standard requirements include measurements that are similar to the USDA Standards for beans and include:

  • Foreign Matter: stones, dirt, broken glass, metal fragments, cereal grains, lentils, peas, and all matter other than beans.
  • Splits and Cracks: pieces of beans that are not damaged, each of which consists of three-fourths or less of the whole bean. ‘Cracks’ include any sound bean where the halves are held together loosely.
  • Badly Discolored beans are discolored by frost, weather, disease or other causes so as to materially affect the appearance and quality of the beans.
  • Chewing Insect Damage have pieces of beans that are damaged by weevils or other insects.

If you have questions please call Mary Voorhees at 530- 754-2249.

Appropriate Planting Stock Documentation on Field Applications

For every field planted for certification, the applicant must provide documentation identifying the planting stock. When Foundation or Registered seed is planted, the best documentation is a certification tag issued by the CCIA or another state certifying agency. As certification tags cannot be affixed to a bulk lot, a “Bulk Sale Certificate” (provided by the CCIA) should be used in lieu of a tag. When certification tags or Bulk Sale Certificates are not available, the CCIA may elect to accept an invoice for the seed planted if a copy of an original invoice (issued by the seller) is provided with the following information: variety name, pounds sold, class of certified seed, certification number, and lot number. When breeder seed is planted, the applicant must provide a copy of the breeder tag and a breeder letter. The breeder letter should contain the following information: date, variety name, identification numbers of the breeder seed lot, pounds of seed provided by the breeder, permission granted to the applicant to produce Foundation seed with the breeder seed, and a signature of the breeder.

Scholarships

The CCIA provides scholarships to students attending the major agricultural universities in California. These students must indicate an active interest and participation in the seed industry, crop improvement, crop science clubs, seed packaging, seed and plant judging contests and/or activities related to seed production. Each university sets their own due dates and application specifics. For more information please contact the College or Department at each school - Chico State, Fresno State, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal Poly Pomona, or UC Davis - or Robert Stewart at the CCIA, 530-752-9826 (rfstewart@ucdavis.edu).

Seed Lab Recognition Program Update

The process of establishing the Seed Laboratory Recognition Program at the CCIA is progressing well. We expect to complete this process and implement the program by Fall 2011. In anticipation of this implementation, we would like to attend to a few issues.

One such issue is provision of quality information and uniformity of the seed laboratory Reports of Analysis. Varied Reports of Analysis have been submitted to the CCIA in the past because in most cases the seed laboratories were unaware that the seed sample they received was actually intended for California seed certification. As a result some laboratory analyses were not meeting the CCIA requirements. The best approach for improvement would be for conditioners to provide adequate information to the seed laboratories in order for them to carryout high quality seed testing.

We suggest you check the Crop Standards posted on the CCIA website. Request all the seed testing necessary for the sample submitted to the seed laboratory of choice. We also request that you provide all seed information needed by using a label available on our website. Provide all information on the tag and attach to the seed sample bag when submitting to the lab or the CCIA.

Accepted Dates on Seed Lab Reports of Analysis

A seed laboratory Report of Analysis provides results for ‘Purity Analysis’ and ‘Germination percentage’. Conditioners submit these reports when requesting seed certification of the seed lots. The CCIA sometimes receives these reports more than 6 months after testing has been completed. During this time period ‘Purity Analysis’ may be subject to change in storage due to insect damage or admixtures. ‘Germination’ may also significantly change due to time and storage conditions such as temperature, humidity, etc. In addition, it has been observed that a conditioner may submit a seed analysis report with both ‘Purity Analysis’ and ‘Germination’ results at one time and then submit another Report of Analysis for the same seed lot with only ‘Germination’ at a completely different time period. In some cases these reports have even been compiled by two different laboratories. Due to the issues stated, the CCIA will only accept seed laboratory Reports of Analysis to determine approval for seed certification that are based on the same seed sample. In addition, the CCIA will require that ‘Purity Analysis’ and ‘Germination’ be conducted on the same laboratory seed sample and be presented in a single Report of Analysis; the CCIA will accept Reports of Analysis dating up to a maximum of six (6) months from the date of the test to the request for seed certification in order to issue a Seed Inspection Report; after six (6) months, the CCIA will require the seed lot be re-sampled and a seed test for both ‘Purity Analysis’ and ‘Germination’ be conducted on the new sample with results submitted in a single Report of Analysis.

Director Focus - Shannon Mueller

Shannon MuellerShannon Mueller has been a farm advisor with UC Cooperative Extension in Fresno County for 22 years. Her responsibilities include research and education activities in support of alfalfa hay, seed, dry bean, and oilseed crop producers. She also works with beekeepers and commodity producers that rely on honey bees and other types of bees for pollination. Shannon received her PhD at Cornell University majoring in Agronomy with minors in Plant Breeding and Animal Nutrition. She was raised in the San Joaquin Valley and was pleased by the opportunity to return to the area following graduation to begin her Extension career. Her research in seed production ranges from establishment issues, irrigation, pest management, pollination, harvest, and most recently gene flow. She works with the CA Alfalfa Seed Production Research Board, CA Seed Association, and the Dry Bean Advisory Board. She is also a member of the CA State Beekeepers Association and local Bee Clubs. Shannon and husband Dave keep busy with two sons in high school and a variety of interests including gardening, music, painting, and beekeeping.

Staff Focus - Kitty Schlosser

Kitty SchlosserKitty Schlosser joined the CCIA in the Fall of 2006 as the Administrative Manager. She received a BS degree from Chico State in Plant Sciences, with emphasis in soils and irrigation. Prior to UCD she worked as a soil scientist for the USDA Soil Conservation Service (now NCRS) and as an assistant plant breeder for Northrup King Seed Company. Kitty has worked over 20 years at UC Davis in a variety of positions – clerk, quality assurance, computer technician, program manager, and department manager. Since the CCIA office is located on the UC Davis campus, and shares some of their policies and procedures, her campus experiences have been very useful in managing the CCIA office. Kitty and husband Ernie live in Zamora, a small town north of Woodland. They are both proud to be 5th generation Californians with rich farming histories. They have 3 adult daughters - Jackie teaches 7th-8th grades near Orland; Janet is an economist with the California Air Resources Board in Sacramento; and Robin is working at UCD in wild rice research. Kitty’s hobbies include quilting and team roping.