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Quality Assurance

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INTRODUCTION

Persons applying for the Quality Assurance® program with the Minnesota Crop Improvement Association must adhere to the following steps. Because of the nature of these inspections, it is imperative that the company, applicant and grower are aware of the requirements. Please read the following information; look at the attached forms and follow all of the steps.

STEP 1

• MCIA staff will meet with each company requesting Quality Assurance® inspections to determine the program specifics. The minimum field and seed standards necessary to use the QA label as part of a marketing tool are the same as those used in the certification program
• Inspection procedures can be modified and will be specified in the special instructions that MCIA inspectors use when inspecting fields. This "customization" allows a company to receive additional field information.

STEP 2

Applicants need to fill out the application for field inspection for each field. Applications are available from the MCIA office. The address is 1900 Hendon Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55108. The phone numbers are 800-510-6242 or 612-625-7766. Seed classes for these types of inspections will be either:

• QA
• QA2 (if two inspections are performed)
• QARR (if inspections are performed on Roundup® resistant QA labeled seed)
• If you wish more than 2 inspections, please indicate the number you require in place of the "2" (i.e., QA4).

All other information needs to be completed along with a map of field locations. The seed source for each field is required. The lot numbers for the seed planted can serve as the seed source. Seed source information is helpful for inspectors to have so they know if two fields are from the same seed source when purity problems arise.

Send completed applications to the MCIA office by the deadlines established each year by the association and published in the Seed Grower.

Variety description forms for each brand/variety need to be sent prior to sending in applications to the MCIA office. These are confidential and will not be shared with other companies. These descriptions should include all plant and seed phenotypical information. Descriptions are needed to assist inspectors in identifying proper fields and with purity inspections. This form and its instructions are available under the "Forms" heading in the Table of Content for this section.

STEP 3

MCIA will inspect fields and send reports to those entities designated by the applicant. All problems will be reported to designated entities and documented on the field inspection reports. Fields will be listed on a pass/fail basis. If fields do fail, a reinspection can be scheduled for an additional fee.

STEP 4

• Harvest field observing good seed and isolation procedures.
• Clean the seed at a MCIA approved conditioning facility.
• Samples of conditioned seed should be sent to the MCIA lab for purity and final germination testing. Seed must meet minimum certification standards to be labeled with the QA logo.

STEP 5

Sell seed marked with the QA logo. Examples of how to mark QA seed are QA tags, bag stencil, imprinted bag or QA stickers. MCIA has brochures available to promote the logo to your customers as well as point of sale QA signs.

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©2005 Minnesota Crop Improvement Association. All rights reserved.
Photos are courtesy of U of MN Agricultural Experiment Station and USDA NRCS.
This page was last updated on August 22, 2005 2:43 PM .