Australia
August 11, 2016
Continuous improvement in agriculture means that nothing ever stays the same; this is certainly true for seed treatments and coatings. At Centor Oceania our aim is to stay ahead of the curve in terms of coating developments for materials, equipment and analytics. Over the past few years we have introduced into our laboratory the most relevant and latest technologies for seed coatings. The Heubach dustmeter for measuring fine dusts given off by treated seed means we have been able to develop highly effective polymers, as well as assist customers with their application regimes. The lab flowmeter was an in-house development to accurately measure seed flow for small samples of coated seed. Complimented by a plantability test stand that utilises the SeedSense monitor for precise measurement of seed placement under a variety of conditions, all this is just part of a larger picture.
The real trends in the seed coating market have been towards low dust products which help improve safety for all those handling the seed but also means the effectiveness of the seed treatment itself is maintained. Once filmcoating was just the addition of colour to treated seed, now the seed not only has to be identified as treated, it needs to look good to reflect the quality of the seed genetics, to flow freely through processing and planting equipment and increasing add to the overall performance of the seed once planted. Developments in the functionality of seed coatings now include addition of nutrients, growth promotors, water absorbents, defence activators, mutualistic agents and biologicals.
Biological products are another rising star which offer a more environmentally conscious approach to seed protection and plant growth, and can often be cheaper than their chemical counterparts. No longer bound just to legumes with the application of rhizobia but a whole raft of biological products suitable for all crops types are emerging. Some of these products work in the rhizosphere of the plants, other work inside the plant itself helping to regulate and process various nutrient pathways.
For those who handle seed stocks, or have a hand in seed breeding there are new technologies to assist in these areas also. Non-destructive tests can be carried out on a device which can measure the chlorophyll content of most seeds and determine from the data how mature the seeds are. Also some specialist equipment can perform a multi-spectral analysis of seed to determine a wide range of features and can even be taught to look for specific known differences between seeds.
Measurements can be as simple as size, shape or colour, and complex as to how much fungi may be present on the seed, or for rice, how chalky it is. It can even be used to see how effectively seed has been covered during a treatment process.
The scale and cost of equipment has been steadily decreasing, meaning that more and more technologies are finding their way into areas that wouldn’t have considered them before. A new product just entering the market uses flow cytometry to analyse pollen, sorting dead from live in just minutes. This type of equipment use to fill a room and require major investment, the latest machine will fit, and run, from the boot of a car. Indeed by simply switching a chip the same equipment can be used to analyse bacteria and again sort living from dead, this offers some great versatility when working with fermentation processes.
Anyone interested in germination speed but you do not want to wait a long time for results, or want more data points for an improved G50 number need to see how the oxygen sensing VIM equipment can produce these results based on seed respiration.
All in all there is progress being made in all parts of seed technology and the pace of change shows no sign of slowing down. For those able to embrace this change and continually move forwards it is an exciting time.
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