LDAF Seed Testing Laboratory’s seed sample results now available online
For immediate release: December 1, 2023
BATON ROUGE, LA – The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry’s (LDAF) Seed Testing Laboratory announces that seed sample test results can now be viewed online. Results have always been available upon request; they’ve just made it easier to access the information.
Lab results can be viewed at https://www.ldaf.la.gov/plants/seeds/seed-sample-test-results .
“Seed selection is one of the first and most important decisions that agricultural producers make each year. This investment is significant,” remarks LDAF Commissioner Mike Strain, DVM. “Seed costs for major agricultural crops can run in the hundreds of dollars per acre and have continued to increase in recent years.”
The inclusion of herbicide, insect, nematode, and disease resistance coupled with improved seed protectants have contributed to the overall value of agricultural seed and increased costs to producers. Producers willing to make that level of investment require the most accurate and up-to-date information to make informed decisions on seeding rates and field production strategies.
“The concern that is quickly becoming a reality is that farmers are reducing seeding rates to the absolute minimum to reduce input costs,” said Billy Leonard, Professor Emeritus with Louisiana State University’s Department of Entomology.
Ensuring Louisiana producers have high-quality planting seed with a recent germination test is critical to their success – hence, LDAF’s Seed Testing Laboratory’s decision to implement the service enhancement of making results more readily available online. The LDAF field inspectors collect samples of agricultural crop seeds at local seed distributors prior to their shipment to producers. Historically, those samples were tested by our Seed Testing Laboratory for regulatory compliance only, and interested producers would have to request the results. Now, the germination test results are available to producers on the LDAF website, providing them with the most current germination quality information on specific seed lots before shipment.
Currently, LDAF is providing the latest warm germination test results for field corn, cotton, and soybean samples online but may extend that to other tests and crop kinds as required by the industry. All seeds are sampled and tested according to Association of Official Seed Analysts (AOSA) rules and are representative of the specific seed lot, or portion of a seed lot, that was available at the time and location the sample was collected.
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For more information regarding the press release, please contact LDAFCommunications@ldaf.state.la. us. For interview requests, please contact PressSecretary@ldaf.state.la.us .