SEPTEMBER 2017 GERMINATION.CA 37 SEED TREATMENT PREVENTION KEY TO AVOID FREEZING OF SEED TREATMENT Allan Anderson, Northern Alberta SeedGrowth Specialist, Bayer Canada allan.anderson@bayer.com • bayer.ca IF YOU’VE EVER treated frozen seed, you know what a pain it can be. Seed treatment freezes to the seed upon contact (known as flash freezing), and doesn’t adhere to the seed properly. Later on it can flake off or get wet, caus- ing issues with metering augers and rollers on air drills. It also leads to issues with seeding rate and generally causes lots of grief. Not a good situation. Every seed treatment has its own requirements when it comes to ideal application temperature, but trying to tailor recipes based upon seed temperature is, of course, a messy and futile exercise. The logical way to tackle this problem is to ensure seed isn’t frozen when it’s treated. After a tough harvest, seed is often aerated in order to condition it for storing, which makes it cold. The seed is put into a bin, where it stays until it’s treated in the spring. Trouble is, bins can be a great insulator. The seed stays frozen, and isn’t thawed prior to treating. And so the problems begin. I’m lucky to be a member of a team that is working to tackle this problem by creating new coatings that can be applied to frozen seed without issue. One day, we may be able to offer a coating product to be used in the event that frozen seed arrives at a treatment facility or needs to be treated quickly on-farm. This product would be made of a material that will not flash freeze upon contact with cold seed. I wish I could say such a product is soon to hit the market, but we’re not there yet. At the moment, the best way to avoid flash freezing of seed treatment is to ensure seed is warmed prior to treatment. Keep seed in a heated shop overnight, or turn your fans on and blow warmer air onto it to bring it to a more ambient temperature. Even zero degrees or just above freezing is ideal. In the event that frozen seed must be treated, adding some water to the seed treatment and bringing the appli- cation volume up can help with flash freezing and result in better adhesion. Consult product specifications before doing this, though. Until a seed coating is developed that’s resistant to flash freezing, prevention is key to avoiding the problems that come with treating frozen seed. WHEN WE’RE WORKING at the ground level, it’s easy to focus on the need that’s right in front of us and lose sight of the bigger picture. If the first question you ask a soft- ware vendor is, “Do you have something that can help me manage my seed inventory?” you might fall into this category. Stop and ask yourself: “What do I expect the software vendor to provide as a solution?” Do you need something that only helps you manage seed inventory? Or are you looking for software that can help support and grow your seed business? If we stop and reflect on all the other aspects of a seed business that impact inventory, then I expect you might realize an application that only solves the challenge of managing seed inventory is not going to go as far as you want. You also need to manage all the other activities and processes that impact inventory, otherwise you’ll still have disjointed ways of working with data that’s distributed in various silos and staff chasing their tails trying to keep all the different spreadsheets and systems synchronized and up-to-date. BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SEEING THE FOREST THROUGH THE TREES Vincent Veneziale, Product Manager, Cultura Seed Solutions @Vince_Veneziale • vincent.veneziale@culturatech.com • culturatech.com For example: If your inventory system requires you to enter the quantities of seed that have been shipped to know the remaining inventory, but the order and billing for those shipments is elsewhere (such as a different system or a spreadsheet), then you’re updating the same informa- tion in multiple places — all for the same transaction. It is important that a bill be sent for the seed, so you do that first. But how long does it take for someone to remember to update your inventory system with the shipment? If this does not happen immediately, the system is broken and your inventory is no longer accurate. Consider asking the software vendor the following: “Do you have something that can help me be more efficient and effective so that I can grow my seed business?” Then you may get a real solution that helps you manage every- thing from your expected production and grower payments all the way through shipping and billing the customer. Don’t let the trees block the view of the forest; the investment you make has to benefit your business as a whole.