Released January 30, 2009
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - A good soybean crop begins with quality seed. Seed is the foundation of crop production and a major investment for producers. Quality seed with high germination and vigor is vital to establishing a strong stand. Arkansas weather and geology vary so much that seed quality is extremely important.
"Two major issues have concerned producers the past couple of years concerning seed quality," says Jeremy Ross, extension soybean agronomist with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture. "First, producers had difficulty obtaining seed and then, second, the seed wouldn’t germinate to adequate stand."
The Division received funding from the Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board this past spring to fund the Soybean Seed Quality Project to addresses these issues.
There are five goals of this project, according to Rick Cartwright, extension plant pathology professor.
"We want to determine the correlation of various seed testing methods with field performance under Arkansas conditions as well as survey soybean seed for quality sold for planning in Arkansas," says Cartwright. "We want to test different soybean seed lots under different storage environments and see if/why quality declines and determine the value of different seed treatments and coatings on soybean planting seed quality and performance. Finally, we’re going to evaluate different types of soybean for genetic improvement of seed quality."
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http://www.uaex.edu/news/january2009/0130soyseed_quality.htm
Contact: Lamar James, (501) 671-2187, ljames@uaex.edu
