Storing seed with endophyte
Endophyte levels in ryegrass seed drop off over time. We take great care to look after endophytic seed, and we want you to do the same. So always keep it in a cool, dry place, and plan to sow it within two months of it leaving our cool store.
Alive and kicking
Heat and humidity are no friend to stored pasture seed, but they’re outright killers for endophyte. Remember, both seed and endophyte are living, breathing organisms. They can remain viable for a long time, but only in the right conditions. Just like you store live vaccines for animals in a fridge, you must store endophytic seed somewhere cool and dry to protect it before sowing.
We'll keep it safe
No suitable space on-farm? No problem. Order seed early; we’ll mix it if required, pallet it, and hold it in one of our specialised cool stores until you need it for sowing. That’s how seriously we take seed stewardship, because we believe you should be able to sow with confidence. And our infrastructure is second to none when it comes to keeping seed safe before it reaches you.
Plan carefully
Aim to get endophytic seed into the ground within 2-3 weeks of it arriving on farm. Don’t carry it over between seasons; the endophyte is unlikely to survive.
Extra certainty
Most ryegrass seed can not be sold the year it is harvested, as there isn’t time to process and test it between harvesting it and autumn pasture renewal. This seed goes into low temperature, low humidity storage straight after it is cleaned, and doesn’t come to you until we have re-tested endophyte levels before sale, to ensure it’s top quality
