While you plan for lambing and calving, a small, select group of farmers is busy planning something else.  

 

They’re checking farm maps and spray diaries; making sure certain paddocks are precisely the right distance from each other, and getting ready for another season of visits from the auditor.

 

They are the farmers who grow our certified seed. Every part of what they do in the coming year will be scrutinised. Nothing is left to chance. Their success rests on harvesting the cleanest, purest crops possible. 

 

What they do is vital. But it’s only one piece of a complex system dedicated to a single purpose – safeguarding the quality of every bag of seed that arrives on your farm. Because there’s enough risk in farming already! You don’t need any more.  

 

High stakes     

The weather. The markets. Global exchange rates. Interest rates. Politics. All beyond your control. But when it comes to what you sow and grow, you’re in the driver’s seat.  

 

Seed is 100% your choice. When you choose our seed, it’s our job to make sure it reaches your farm in pristine condition. Clean, healthy, genetically pure and ready to grow to its full potential.  

 

Dozens of people spend a lot of time making this happen. Plant breeders, lab technicians, agronomists, farmers, auditors, seed cleaners, more lab technicians, cool store operators – the list is long.  

 

It’s all about managing risk. The stakes are too high to gamble with seed quality.  

 

What could possibly go wrong?!  

 Let us count the ways…  

 

You spend heaps of time and money planning and preparing paddocks for sowing, only to end up with poor germination, yield and/or quality. Your pasture or crop fails. You suddenly find unwanted weeds growing on your farm you’ve never had before.   

 

You believe you’re sowing one thing, but it turns out to be something else. The paddock is a disappointment, and just doesn’t perform.  

You think you’ve protected animals and pastures alike with endophyte, then discover you haven’t.  

 

Our whole seed production process, right from the time we start breeding new cultivars, centres on quality assurance. We know all ways faulty seed can cost your business, and we obsess about them, so you don’t have to.

 

Fit and clean   

 Sowing any pasture or crop involves risk. The longer it takes each seed to germinate, for example, the more it is at the mercy of very wet or prolonged dry conditions after drilling, often accentuated by insect attack. 

 

So physical quality is imperative. Light, fluffy, gutless seed with poor germination is out of the question. You need fat, healthy, heavy seed which germinates fast and evenly to minimise that unpredictable window between drilling and emergence. We got you.  

 

Then there’s the risk of contaminating your soil with the worst kind of seed – noxious weeds. Any sign of those during production or cleaning, and the crop is rejected.  

 

And every certified seed line must pass stringent purity tests administered by AsureQuality before it can be sold.   

 

Pure as   

 Just like the neighbour’s bull or ram can take an unscheduled (unwanted) visit over the fence, most crops of seed can be cross pollinated by the wrong genetics.  

 

You keep your fences in good shape; we maintain strict isolation distances between crops, and continuously monitor the DNA purity of seed we supply to our growers.  

 

In fact, keeping growers’ seed genetically true to its origins, year after year, is a full-time job in itself for some at our research farm. One less thing for you to worry about when you tip those bags into the drill at sowing time.  

 

And don’t forget endophyte! A living organism inside another living organism, this demands its own dedicated, elaborate process of testing and quality assurance.  

 

Certifiable, and proud of it!  

 You don’t have to just take our word for all these quality parameters. They’re documented in black and white by AsureQuality through the National Seed Laboratory.  

 

Every line of certified seed from Barenbrug comes with its own seed analysis certificate confirming (and tracing) its genetic identity, and showing its purity and germination test results.

 

If it contains endophyte, there’s a test result for that too.  

 

Bottom line – in a high-risk business, subject to so many unpredictable forces, our certified seed is as close to a sure thing as you will ever get. Trust what’s in the bag; sow with confidence.  

 

And if you have any questions about pastures or crops, remember we’re always here to help answer them. Book your free, personal Pasture Health Check today.