b'PARTNER CONTENTTESTING YOUR SEED DURING STORAGE IS A MUST FOR THE YEAR AHEADMarc ZienkiewiczSEED ANALYSTS CANbe thought of as diagnostic doctors, diagnosing the health of your most precious input. As a new year begins, the physicians at SGS BioVision are advising you bring your seed in for more than just its routine checkups.Best practises have been to test seed right off the com-bine at harvest, and then again in spring before seeding, says Trevor Nysetvold, director of Seed and Crop for SGS BioVision in Sherwood Park, Alta.But Nysetvold says that in the new year, interim testing is advised in order to monitor the quality of the product in storage.After what much of that seed went through late last year, your seed health could deteriorate just sitting in the bin, he says. Seed tests are a snapshot in time. In the course of his work, Nysetvold and his staff at SGS BioVision have given thousands of clients peace-of-mind in regard to the health of their seed.But seed testing is never as easy as just taking a sample and putting it through a testing procedure.precision farming, and has a network of 17 seed testing Analystslike doctorsconsider other factors, likelabs the world over.what the harvest season was like, storage conditions, andOur history has always been in testing for seed what could be in store this coming seeding season andmultiplication, bringing the seed from breeder status whether or not those seeds tested are healthy enough toto the certified seed level for the pedigreed seed handle what Mother Nature may deliver. industry. Now we have greater interactions within the There can be predictive value in getting that seedseed industry in Canada, thanks to a number of SGS tested during storage. Its important that clients worklabs that support the seed industry beyond just seed with a reputable lab because in a lot of cases there maymultiplication, says Holly Gelech, business development be some interpretation required to fully understand whatmanager Seed and Crop for SGS BioVision.those test results mean and what they dont mean. One of those labs includes the Grains Analytical Thats where SGS BioVisions unique expertise comesResearch Lab in Guelph, Ont., which has partnered with in. As an International Seed Testing Association-accreditedthe seed industry in providing end use testing for wheat lab, SGS BioVision is now capable of issuing Canadianvarieties.seed organizations ISTA Orange International CertificatesSGS BioVision is increasingly becoming involved in (OIC) or Blue International Certificates (BIC) based on theplant- and soil-based testing.requirements of the importing country. We support the seed industry through soil nutrient But the ISTA accreditation, combined with SGSs globaltesting as well as pathology, which includes full fungal presence, means more than just delivering quality seedscans of the soil to specific pathogens like clubroot and testing results to seed growers. Aphanomyces, Gelech adds.SGS BioVision is part of the Seed and Crop groupWe look at the big picturethats one of the ben-within SGS globally, Nysetvold says. When BioVision wasefits of having a global presence.acquired by SGS in 2017, it created the Seed and CropFor more info visit biovision.cadivision within SGS Canada. Now, Nysetvold and his staff in Sherwood Park collab-orate with other SGS colleagues in 35 different countries.Podcast Alert! Check out our podcast episode with SGS operates seven GLP labs, conducts contract fieldSGS BioVisions Holly Gelech and Trevor Nysetvold at trials in 28 countries, runs 17 soil laboratories working ongermination.ca/test-seed-this-year/JANUARY 2020 GERMINATION.CA 29'