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Saving Wheat Seed
Ron Meyer, Area
Extension Agent - Golden Plains Area
Date: 7/1/2011
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Throughout the ages,
farmers have planted seed saved from their wheat previous crop. When making
seed wheat decisions, they selected the best quality seed from the highest
yielding varieties.
With the advent of hybrid crops like corn, farmers
discovered that they did not get the advantage of hybrid vigor when they saved
their seed, the ensuing crop was not uniform, and yields were poor. It was
quickly learned they needed to buy new seed each year of these hybrid crops to
maximize yields. This annual purchase of hybrid seed commercialized the corn
seed business and resulted in enormous investment into research and development
for improved corn hybrids. Consequently, technology in corn has benefitted
farmers. When it comes to hybrid corn, it just didn’t make sense to save
your corn seed any more.
With the passage of the US Plant Variety
Protection Act in 1970, congress encouraged private investment into development
of new plant varieties. An important component of this act was the
farmer’s right so save seed. Section 113 of the act states, “It shall
not infringe any right hereunder for a person to save seed produced by the
person from seed obtained, or descended from seed obtained, by authority of the
owner of the variety for seeding purposes and use such saved seed in the
production of a crop for use on the farm of the person
…”
Simply stated, if a farmer purchases Certified wheat seed
they may keep seed grown from that seed for planting on his farm. However, if a
farmer buys non-certified wheat seed of a PVPA protected variety from someone
else, it is likely that not only is the purchase of that seed in violation of
the Act, but saving seed of subsequent production is also a
violation.
The most recent restrictions to saving seed are those imposed
by patented traits and sales contracts. In most cases, farmers are prohibited
by patent laws from saving seed of varieties with patented traits like
Roundup® resistance in soybean and Clearfield ® in wheat. This is
usually reinforced through a contract that is signed at the point of purchase.
Even if traits are not patented, saving seed may be prohibited as part of the
sales contract.
The consequences of planting illegal seed can be
substantial. The owner of the variety could go as far as filing a lawsuit
asking for the destruction of the crop. There could also be monetary awards and
attorney fees. If state or federal officials get involved, fines could range
from $50-$500 per occurrence.
Ignorance of the law is no excuse. As a
best management practice, farmers should know what variety they are planting.
If they can’t show that they purchased Certified seed, they will need to
investigate further before they save any production for planting. If they did
purchase Certified seed, they should read the label and sales contracts to see
if there are any restrictions on saving seed.
With the recent private
investment and inclusion of proprietary genetic traits into wheat variety
development, it is going to be less likely a farmer will be able to save and
replant his own seed in the future. On the bright side, the value that seed
Certification brings to seed wheat performance and convenience along with the
improvements in yield and quality offered by new varieties may make saving your
own seed an economically unattractive choice.
Source: Daryl Strouts,
president, Kansas Wheat Alliance – December 2010 Wheat Farmer
Newsletter