With cotton planting right around the corner, now is time for North Carolina cotton farmers to check their seed quality and take full advantage of the new pilot program for cotton seed quality being managed by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

The new program was launched this year due to problems with low cool germination rates in some lots of cotton seed over the past few years. Guy Collins, North Carolina State University Extension agronomist, says the new pilot  program is all about transparency and third-party testing to ensure North Carolina cotton farmers are planting high-quality seed and know what they are purchasing.

So far, the majority of cotton seed tested in the pilot program has been excellent across several brands, but Collins emphasizes there is no guarantee that every single lot number will be high-quality seed, especially if seed has not arrived yet.

Cotton Seed Lot

“We recommend that every grower use that database as soon as they know the lot numbers of the seed they are buying and go ahead and check the database to see what the seed quality is for each lot number they purchase,” Collins said in a telephone interview with Southeast Farm Press.

Depending on the cool germ and warm germ rating of each lot, farmers can adjust their planting practices. But Collins says farmers first need to make use of the NCDA database to find the actual NCDA germination percentage of each lot number.

“If you have one lot number that has decent warm germ, but low cool germ, you need to know that so that you don’t plant that lot number during these periods of marginal conditions that we often times see during the spring,” Collins said.

If a grower goes into the database with a lot number and discovers that the lot had not yet been sampled, they should contact Brian Bowers with NCDA&CS ([email protected], 919-707-3756) immediately, and he will notify local seed inspectors to collect a sample as soon  as reasonably possible.

Cotton Sample

Collins said this needs to be done before the bag of seed is opened or seed treated at the local retailer level. To be considered as an official sample, if there is ever a complaint or issue with emergence, the sample must be pulled and tested by NCDA&CS from unopened bags or containers.

Collins notes that the pilot program is a voluntary cooperative effort between NCDA&CS and seed companies that are doing a good job working together to provide good information to all North Carolina cotton farmers. The database can be found at Cotton Test Results on the NCSU Cotton Extension Portal.

Users will need to create their own username and password to enter the database. Once a user is logged into the database, select “Cotton Test Results” under the “Seed Reports” dropdown box on the top toolbar.

 A user must then enter the correct and entire lot number for each lot of seed they want results; therefore, it is very important to record your lot numbers thoroughly and accurately. Using the NCDA&CS test results, growers should then use the Cotton Planting Conditions Calculator to make the best planting decisions possible.