How We Get Stock Seed of Field Crops

CARLTON S. GARRISON.

PLANT breeders develop a new, superior variety. What then?

First, stock seed must be increased as rapidly as possible under a plan that will maintain the superior varietal characteristics.

The next step is to distribute the foundation seed in a way that will insure equitable allotments to the experienced growers and seedmen and at the same time avoid exploitation of the new variety.

Thus the production and distribution of adequate supplies of stock seed which in the case of field-crop varieties is designated as foundation seed are crucial steps in developing the potential usefulness of a variety.

Foundation seed must be produced before commercial increases of registered and certified seed are possible. It is the stage in which the first large increase of seed is made and the one in which meticulous care must be taken to protect purity as to variety.

New varieties of field crops in the United States are released jointly by the Federal and State agricultural experiment stations or by seed firms that have a plant-breeding program.

A variety originating in a foreign country occasionally is found to be adapted to some section of the United States. It is introduced as though it had originated in this country. An experiment station or seed firm sponsors it and is responsible for the adequacy of foundation seed.

The procedures the public agencies and private firms follow in releasing seed of superior varieties are different, but both aim to provide adequate quantities of foundation seed while maintaining varietal purity.

Varieties, hybrids, and inbred lines of field crops developed by public research agencies are released through foundation seed programs, which are of three types: Projects operating within a State agricultural experiment station or Government agency; private organizations, directed by persons from public agencies; and private organizations controlled by growers.

THE STATE FOUNDATION seed programs that are part of the work of an agricultural experiment station sometimes are assigned to a specific department. In Alabama, California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, for example, the department of agronomy supervises them.

In other States, such as Idaho, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming, the foundation seed project operates under the direction of the director of the experiment station.

The programs are under the supervision of a foundation seed stocks committee, which usually comprises the director of the experiment station, the chairmen of the departments of agronomy and horticulture, the manager of the seed-certifying agency, and a representative of the Extension Service. Often the superintendents of the branch experiment stations and sometimes a representative of the seedgrowers and seed trade are members. A member of the staff of the experiment station or Extension Service usually is assigned to manage the production and distribution of foundation seed.

Funds to cover the production, processing, storage, and distribution of the foundation seed and related expenses are made available from State appropriations or from sales of the seed. The source of funds varies from State to State from 100 percent appropriated funds to 100 percent funds acquired from seed dealers. Many States use both types of funds. They pay the salaries of the management from appropriated funds, and the costs for producing, processing, storing, and distributing the seed are paid from the seed sales fund.

IN A FEW STATES, the foundation seed organizations are private corporations, whose directors are mainly members of the staffs of the experiment stations and Extension Service. The experiment station thus controls the work.

Oklahoma Foundation Seed Stock, for example, is a private corporation, all of whose board members are on the staff of Oklahoma State University. The board of the Foundation Seed Stock Division at South Dakota State College has six members from the college and five who are nominated by the South Dakota Crop Improvement Association the State seed-certifying agency to represent major crop-producing areas of the State. The managers of both the Oklahoma and the South Dakota organizations are staff members of the experiment station or the Extension Service. All operating costs are paid from income from sales of seed.

The third type of organization that produces foundation seed for public research agencies is strictly private. It may be a nonprofit corporation or a growers' cooperative. Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, and New York have organizations of this kind.

The board of directors is elected by the members of the corporation or cooperative. A representative of the experiment station sometimes is a member of the board. Sometimes the boards have established a seed stock advisory committee comprising representatives of the experiment station, Extension Service, and the seed-certifying agency.

Since these private organizations handle the increase and distribution of stock seed of new varieties bred by public research agencies, a memorandum of understanding or some contractual arrangement is developed between the foundation seed organization and the State experiment station. Its main purpose is to define responsibilities and working arrangements. This is important, because the foundation seed organization is given exclusive rights to new varieties developed by public agencies. The interest of the public is protected by the memorandum of understanding and representation of the experiment station on the organization's board of directors or through an advisory seed stocks committee.

Private funds are used to finance the operations of this type of foundation seed organization, but occasionally the State makes an initial grant of funds. Office and warehouse facilities are provided by the experiment station in some States.

The foundation seed of the small grains, inbred lines and single crosses of corn, sorghum, oil, and fiber crops, and some of the forage crops is produced mostly in the State or region where it will be used.

On the other hand, foundation seed of many varieties of forage crops is produced away from its place of origin; that is, in areas where the seed can be multiplied more efficiently. The distance between the State where the variety originated and where the foundation seed is grown sometimes is more than 2 thousand miles.

BEFORE SEED can be tagged and sealed as foundation seed, requirements specified by the State seed-certifying agency must be met. The minimum seed certification standards specify the requirements for eligibility of planting stock, land requirements, isolation, field inspection, and seed standards.

Eligible planting stock breeder seed must be used in the production of foundation seed. Usually it is supplied by the plant breeder. Special programs are maintained in many States to assure the purity of the stock from which the foundation seed is grown. For small grains, for example, a head-to-row planting is made of selected heads. After careful roguing by the breeder and representatives of the foundation seed organization, the true-to-variety rows are harvested as breeder seed for the production of foundation seed.

Similar systems are used for most of the crops. For forage crops, however, their heterogeneity requires that the originating breeder maintain a recurring supply of breeder seed since the number of generations of increase permissible from breeder seed usually is limited. Most forage varieties are limited to one generation each of foundation, registered, and certified seed, but the registered seed class is being eliminated whenever the required volume of certified seed can be produced without it.

The certification standards normally specify that foundation seed be grown on land that has not been seeded to the crop for a specific number of years. To be eligible to produce foundation seed of small grains, soybeans, millet, and sorghum, the land must not have produced the respective crop the previous year.

The interval is lengthened for crops in which hard seeds or seed dormancy are factors in germination. For alfalfa, the period during which the land must not have grown the same seed crop is 4 years; grasses, 5 years; red clover, 6 years; and sweetclover, 10 years.

Adequate isolation distances are required to avoid contamination in foundation seed fields. The minimum distance for the cross-pollinated species (except corn) is 80 rods. Cornfields must be at least 40 rods apart or less if there are border rows or natural barriers.

An isolation strip about 10 feet wide, or the width of one drill, is required between foundation seed fields of self-pollinated crops and contaminating plant materials.

Fields of foundation seed must be inspected each year. For some crops the requirements are specific as to the number, and timing of inspections. At least four inspections are required for corn during the pollinating period. One inspection is required for the grasses, but it must be made after heading and before harvest.

Fields producing foundation seed must be free of other varieties or off-type plants. Off types can cause the seed to be declared ineligible as foundation seed. The seed fields therefore must be rogued several times during the season.

The certification procedures include maximum allowances for other crops, weeds, and inert matter, and minimum requirements for purity and germination. Usually the minimum germination plus hard seed is 80 percent. The minimum purity is 97 percent or better, but for many of the grasses it has to be lower because of the chaffy characteristics of some species.

The certification agency checks the harvesters and seed cleaners before they are used for foundation seed.

The seed is tagged and sealed after it is cleaned and found to meet all requirements for certification. A white tag is used to denote foundation seed.

Arrangements for producing foundation seed of field-crop varieties depend somewhat on the type of organization responsible for it.

In places where the foundation seed projects are a part of the experiment station, much of the foundation seed is grown at the branch experiment stations. Thus it is under the control of the foundation seed project at all times.

When the required production is greater than the capacity of the experiment station farms, the seed is produced under contract by registered or certified seedgrowers who have had experience with the crop.