May 2006
Seed bag levy will finance herbage variety trials
Richard Saunders reports in Farm Business
A new system of funding herbage variety trials will see farmers contributing each time they buy a bag of seed from the key breeders and suppliers. A Herbage Varieties Guide logo present on their bags will mean purchasers are contributing towards the NIAB variety evaluation and recommendation system, which underpins advances in herbage breeding and grassland management.
The scheme has been developed by the British Society of Plant Breeders (BSPB) in partnership with seed merchants, plant breeders, seed growers and NIAB.
It is in response to concerns that the previous system of voluntary levies was struggling to cover the £120,000 annual costs and failing to provide adequate protection of trials data.
The new system will remain voluntary - farmers have other supplier choices - but is strengthened significantly by the new identity and logo, plus the licensing of participating merchants to use the new branding and access trials data.
Already, the scheme has signed up well over 70 individual suppliers, more than under the previous system.
The BSPB pointed out that it will not put up the cost of seed to farmers, with the levy retained at 2.6p/kg on sales.
Trials will continue to be carried out by NIAB under contract to the BSPB with the resulting data reviewed annually by the Herbage Trials Advisory Committee, which recommends the best varieties for farmers in England & Wales.
The Recommended List will no longer be published as a booklet but will be available via a new web site (www.herbagevarietiesguide.co.uk). This includes general information about the scheme and individual varieties as well as a protected area for those involved in the scheme to access the full Recommended List data.
Protecting trials data in this way, said the BSPB, will ensure that in future, only participating suppliers and seed merchants licensed to display the HVG logo can access the definitive guide to the best herbage varieties for England & Wales.
Dr Penny Maplestone, operations manager at the BSPB, said the new system sought to establish a direct link between farmers' seed purchasing decisions and the value of independent testing and evaluation.
"As livestock farmers focus increasingly on grassland management as a component of successful milk and meat production, it is vital that the industry maintains an independent benchmark of the highest performing herbage varieties in terms of yield, quality and persistence", she commented.
Source: Farm Business 19 May 2006