Article

Quality Seed Treatment Benefits vs. Risks of Over-Treating Seeds

Every season, there’s an expanding array of seed treatment options promising to help farmers deliver extra yield. Even a small advantage can make a big difference in a season’s profitability, so it’s understandable why adding another treatment is so appealing.

What many farmers may not realize however, is how finely calibrated seed treatments need to be to work effectively. Over-treatment often disrupts this balance and can reduce effectiveness of original seed treatment. This is why Corteva has invested in developing technologies and a process that allows us to hone recipes and application practices to deliver proven seed treatment solutions that help farmers protect their season’s most valuable input.

Because of the finely tuned nature of Corteva Seed Applied Technologies, an over-treatment — the process of adding another seed treatment on top of an existing one — may compromise seed treatment quality. Here are some common questions that come up around over-treatment, and why growers should carefully consider the risks of putting seed through this process.

Why does it matter how seed is treated, and how does over-treatment affect seed quality?

A simple analogy is to think of seed treatments like like baking a cookie. Every cookie has some main ingredients (flour, sugar), and there are many ways you can combine those to make a tasty cookie.

But what if the goal is to create the highest-quality cookie possible? That’s harder and depends on a lot of variables, like the quality of the ingredients, how they’re combined, how long the cookie bakes and so on. Adding an over-treatment is like putting in another ingredient and then baking the cookie again. The new ingredient might not play well with the existing recipe. Baking the cookie a second time will affect quality.

Similarly, Corteva seed treatments follow very specific recipes to meet the needs of the farmer and be of the highest quality possible. That recipe is then tested repeatedly in multi-year trials before bringing it to customers. Adding something else on top could throw the whole thing off.

How does Corteva develop its seed treatments?

Corteva is highly focused on what farmers need in the field. Potential solutions are developed and tested at our dedicated Centers for Seed Applied Technologies (CSAT). Through development, recipes are refined and the application process is scaled up to ensure it works on an industrial scale.

With multiple CSAT centers across the globe, Corteva is able to develop solutions specific to a region’s needs and crops. Seed treatment testing is tailored to regional conditions, such as heat and humidity, or cool, dry weather, to see how the treatment performs.

What are the criteria for a high-quality seed treatment? How does Corteva determine what makes it to market?

Corteva has developed a quality process known as PASSER, which stands for plantability, application, stewardship, seed safety, efficacy and regulatory. Each criteria acts as a checkpoint in the seed treatment development process to ensure delivering the highest-quality products.

PASSER is the internal process Corteva uses to evaluate seed treatments to ensure they meet the highest standards.

Every season, there seem to be new options out there for over-treatments, especially with biologicals. What’s the harm in adding a biological?

Corteva seed treatment recipes often already include a biological component. Choosing to over-treat that seed with another biological could create an unexpected interaction, potentially making both biologicals ineffective. While it’s tempting to think of naturally derived seed treatments as safe add-ons, every component that goes over an existing treatment has the potential to cause an unwanted effect.

Each time seed is handled, risk of seed damage also increases. This is especially true with corn because the embryo is more exposed than in soybean seed. The risk worsens if a seed treatment supplier is not using the right equipment or handling seed properly. The tumbling action can damage the existing seed treatment coating, if not the seed itself.

Seed needs to be handled carefully in the treatment process to avoid damaging the embryo. Over-treatment may damage treatments already on the seed.

Do farmers risk leaving yield on the table if they don’t try a new over-treatment?

Choosing to pass on a new over-treatment can feel like missing out on the “latest and greatest.” However, by selecting Corteva seed treatments, farmers can feel good they’ve got a comprehensive package of protection that doesn’t require over-treatment. Corteva Seed Applied Technologies researchers are continually working on new solutions, and perhaps most importantly, ensuring they work in the field and with key seed genetics. While developing the next solutions to give farmers an edge, Corteva scientists are also committed to bringing those seed treatments to market in the right way – designed and tested to give farmers total confidence in their seed protection.