Safe supply of climatically adapted forage seed through reduced storage losses

Winter damage, especially due to ice encasement, is an overriding factor governing the demand for forage seed in Norway. Global warming implies greater risks for ice damage because of winter rainfall and temperature fluctuations. Due to variations in seed yield and the highly unpredictable nature of winter damages, it is critical always to maintain a seed reserve of Norwegian, climatically-adapted forage cultivars. However, seed storage is expensive and risky, as seed lots will, gradually or rather unpred ictably, lose their germination capacity. As, during the past five years, Norwegian seed companies had to discard forage seed lots worth more than 3 mill NOK, there is presently a tendency to reducing the overlying seed reserve. The present research pr oposal is a concerted effort by the four companies supplying forage seed in Norway and the only seed testing station in the country. Our objective is to secure the seed supply for Norwegian forage production by minimising seed losses during storage. This will be accomplished by (1) investigating and communicating to seed growers the effects of cultivar, harvest maturity and drying intensity on seed longevity; (2) finding better geographical locations for long term seed storage; (3) investigating the effec t of, and if necessary replacing, the type of containers presently used for seed storage; and (4) developing seed vigour tests that can be used to rank seed lots for storability, ensuring that seed lots with the lowest longevity are used first. Drawing o n national and international expertise, the project will alleviate economical losses suffered by Norwegian seed companies, broaden the competence and number of analyses offered by Kimen Såvarelaboratoriet, render Norwegian seed production more competitive internationally, and secure the seed supply to each individual farmer. The project will also result in three scientific papers in peer-reviewed, international journals.