By Chase Mowry, Seed Laboratory Services Manager
We are happy to announce the recent hiring of Claire Biel to fill a vacant seed lab technician position. Claire’s main responsibilities in the laboratory this year will focus on checking in samples, dividing out working samples for purity testing, and planting samples for germination tests. We will also continue training on some of the additional testing services the laboratory offers as well as the requirements of seed certification. Welcome Claire!
Samples submitted to the Seed Laboratory for testing so far this season are slightly behind in comparison to this point in time last year. However, of those received, the overall seed health of samples has continued to look pretty good, and viability results on average are high. We have seen a small amount of Fusarium (scab) infection in germination tests for wheat and rye samples thus far, and Sclerotinia has been present in a handful of soybean samples. Test results for barley loose smut have also shown low infection.
As a reminder, there may be delays in your test results for samples submitted around the holidays as we will plant around the holiday schedule. To prevent any further delays, please be sure to provide all necessary paperwork along with your samples.
If there are any seed testing topics that you would like addressed in future Lab Report columns, please send your ideas to MCIA Seed Laboratory Manager Chase Mowry at chase.mowry@mncia.org.