SOUTH DAKOTA SEED CERTIFICATION STANDARDS
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SOUTH DAKOTA SEED CERTIFICATION STANDARDS |
Alfalfa and Trefoil
Seed Certification Standards
(In Addition to the General Standards Listed on the Standard's
Home Page )
I. Classes of Seed
A. Foundation Seed
Fields producing Foundation seed shall be on land on which no alfalfa was grown or planted
during four years prior to the one in which the present stand was planted.
B. Registered Seed
Fields producing Registered seed shall be planted with Foundation seed on land on which no
alfalfa was grown or planted during the three years prior to the one in which the present
stand was planted.
C. Certified Seed
Fields producing Certified seed shall be planted with Foundation or Registered seed on
land on which no alfalfa was grown or planted during the year prior to the one in which
the present stand was planted.
II. Handling of the Crop
Prior to Inspection
Roguing of off-type plants, sweet clover and dodder will be required prior to official
inspection.
III. Field Inspections
Each year that a seed crop is produced for certification, at least one official inspection
shall be made prior to harvest. The inspection shall be made when the crop is in bloom.
IV. Alfalfa Field Standards
A. A portion of a field may be Certified. A clear line of demarcation shall be established
between the certified and non-certified portion of the field.
B. Volunteer plants shall be cause for rejection of a seed field.
C. As an additional precaution, no manure or other contaminating materials may be applied
during the establishment and productive period
of the stand.
Factor |
Foundation | Registered | Certified |
| Other varieties* | .10% | .25% | 1.00% |
| Other crops (inseparable sweet clover) | None | .25% | .50% |
| Isolation**: Fields less than 5 acres | 900' | 450' | 165' |
| Fields 5 acres or more | 600' | 300' | 165' |
* Other varieties shall be considered to include plants that can be
differentiated from the variety that is being inspected.
** Isolation: A field producing Foundation, Registered or Certified seed must have minimum
isolation distances from fields of any other variety or fields of the same variety
that do not meet the varietal purity requirements for certification as shown in the
table. Isolation distances between Certified classes of the same variety may be reduced to
ten feet regardless of class or size of the field.
V. Seed Samples and Laboratory
Analysis
An official laboratory analysis shall be made of
a representative sample of each lot of seed.
VI. Seed Standards
Factor |
Foundation | Registered | Certified |
| Pure seed (minimum) | 99.00% | 99.00% | 99.00% |
| Inert (maximum) | 1.00% | 1.00% | 1.00% |
| Total other crop (maximum) | 0.20% | 0.35% | 1.00% |
| Other crop seed (sweet clover) | None | 90/lb. | 180/lb. |
| Total weed seed (maximum) | .10% | .20% | .50% |
| Prohibited weed seed | None | None | None |
| Restricted weed seed | None | None | *9/lb |
| Other varieties (maximum) | .10% | .25% | 1.00% |
| Total germination & hard seed (minimum) | 80.00% | 80.00% | 80.00% |
* One restricted noxious weed seed of field pennycress (Thiaspi arvense) or
wild mustard (Brassica spp.) would be allowed in a 50 gram working sample of
alfalfa in the Certified class only. No dodder would be allowed in any of the classes of
Certified seed.
| Back to Seed Certification/SDCIA's Seed Standards Home Page |
Web page last modified on October 02, 2000 by
Dan Olson.