Performance Story: Can Farm-saved Seed of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Perform as well as Certified Seed in Saskatchewan?

Principal Investigators:

Mike Hall and Heather Sorestad, East Central Research Foundation, Yorkton, SK.

Robin Lokken, Conservation Learning Centre, Prince Albert, SK

Christiane Catellier, Indian Head Research Foundation, Indian Head, SK.

Brianne McInnes and Jessica Slowski, Northeast Agriculture Research Foundation, Melfort, SK

Lana Shaw, South East Research Farm, Redvers, SK

Garry Hnatowich and Gursahib Singh, Irrigation Crop Diversification Centre, Outlook, SK

Jessica Enns and Kayla Slind, Western Applied Research Corporation, Scott, SK

Bryan Nybo and Amber Wall, Wheatland Conservation Area Inc., Swift Current, SK

In late 2018, the Agri-Arm group devised a study to compare the quality and performance of certified wheat seed against farm-saved seed (FSS). Farm-saved seed is the producer’s own seed which they clean and use as a seed source for their own farm, because it is cheaper than buying certified seed. Historically, the majority of wheat acres in western Canada are seeded with FSS. Producers will typically introduce better genetics by purchasing certified seed and then use FSS after that for a few years. SaskWheat wanted to know if this was a best practice or whether certified seed should be used more often because it may be better quality, more productive seed. A fair comparison between certified and FSS would require the generation of a lot of data. To this end, the project involved all 8 Agri-Arm locations in Saskatchewan and was funded for 3 years (2019-2021). The objectives of the study were as follows:

to compare the vigor and yield performance of various lots of farm-saved wheat seed relative to the same varieties of certified seed.
to determine the degree to which seed treatment could improve the vigor and yield potential of farm-saved and certified seed lots of wheat

To accomplish these objectives a 3 factor study was designed. The factors were certified vs farm-saved seed, varietal comparison and seed treatment. Each site made three varietal comparisons of a certified seed lot against a farm saved seed lot. The varieties within a varietal comparison were always the same but the varieties being compared could differ between “varietal comparisons”. A seed lot was never used in the study more than once to ensure as many different comparisons could be made as possible. Every year each site sourced 6 new seeds lots. At the end of the study, 144 different seed lots (8 sites by 3 years by 6 seed lots) had been compared. Half were certified and half were FSS. All FSS was cleaned seed that the producer intended to sow. The impact of seed treatment on comparisons between certified and FSS was also determined. Seed treatments were either Raxil Pro, Cruiser Vibrance Quattro, Cruiser Maxx Cereal or Cruiser Maxx Vibrance. Raxil Pro and Cruiser Vibrance Quatrro were used most often. In the end, the study made 72 varietal comparisons with and without seed treatment. The vast majority of comparisons were with hard red spring wheat varieties and a few with durum varieties. Brandon was used in 27 comparisons, followed by Viewfield with 8 and Elie with 7 comparisons. The FSS used in the comparisons ranged from 1 to 5 years removed from certified, averaging 2.1 years removed. Samples from each seed lot was sent away to determine the quality of the seed used in the study. Overall, seed quality was excellent for both the certified and FSS. On average, seed vigor was 93.1% for certified seed and 91.7% for FSS. The difference was not considered statistically significant. Levels of seed-borne fusarium were on average quite low for both certified (2.76%) and FSS (3.75%).

Averaged over 144 comparisons, certified seed produced 60.6 bu/ac with 13.83% grain protein and FSS produced 60.1 bu/ac with 13.85% grain protein. These differences are very small and statistically insignificant. There were some interactions where certified seed yielded more (7 comparisons) and one comparison where FSS performed significantly better. However, there were no significant differences between the vast majority of comparisons. Seed treatment also did not appear to provide any benefit based on 144 comparisons. Overall, untreated seed yielded 60.5 bu/ac with 13.95% grain protein and certified seed yielded 60.1 bu/ac with 13.84% grain protein. Again, these differences were not statistically significant or of agronomic concern. There were interactions where treated seed had higher yields for 18 comparisons but untreated seed had higher yields for 28 comparisons. As levels of soil borne disease were generally low in this study, some of the seed treatments may have produced phytotoxic effects, particularly if seed treatment was not applied evenly to seed.

The results from this study support the common practice of growing FSS. Over the 3 years of this study, using FSS did not sacrifice production. It should be noted that the growing conditions for producing quality seed were excellent over the course of this study. In poor seed quality years, producers using FSS should seed test and clean seed to exacting standards used by seed growers in order to achieve similar levels of quality to certified seed. The results of this study do not suggest that producers should not purchase certified seed. Certified seed has value as it is “true to type”, which is of growing importance to the end user. Purchasing certified seed introduces improved genetics to the farm and supports a breeding system that keeps Canadian wheat producers globally competitive. This study does not discount the importance of certified seed. However, the popular approach of many farmers to grow FSS for a couple of years between purchases of new certified seed appears economically sound.

This study has been of particular interest to the agricultural industry. Final results were shared at the Agri-Arm update on January 13, 2022 (167 participants) and the ECRF/Parkland college webinar on March 28, 2022 (73 registrants). Initial findings were summarized in Top Crop magazine on Sept 6, 2020 and Top Crop will be publishing the final results in the October 2022 edition. https://www.topcropmanager.com/farm-saved-seed-certified-seed-matchup/

An earlier summary of the project was also published in the Country Guide on June 14, 2021.

https://www.country-guide.ca/crops/choosing-your-seed-certified-or-farm-saved/

A video summarizing the results was recently released on the ECRF YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk4mUbXRKgs&t=3s