Release and Distribution of Cultivars

Decision Making Process

• Breeder summarizes data from yield tests and quality evaluations

• Requests a meeting of the Seed Commodity Committee

• Presents data to the committee and recommends release

• Committee votes on recommendation• If approved, submit to the Dean

The Breeder’s role

• Let the data tell you what to do• Don’t let your heart overrule your head!• Experiment Station Guidelines are clear:

– Minimum of 3 yr testing at multiple locations

– Quality analyses– Must be able to demonstrate superiority– Multi - state data desirable

• Over and above that, will the growers want it?

Testing and Release of Allegiance Wheat

• Entered in PTs, ATs, ETs and Ultra trials in 1996-1999

• Entered in state variety trial 2000 - 2002 (9 locations x 3 years)

• Entered in USDA Uniform Eastern Wheat Nursery 2001-2002 (28 locations x 2 years)

• Grain sent for milling and baking evaluation for > 4 yr

Decision to Release Allegiance

• Based on 3 yr average in state variety trial Allegiance was at the top

• Excellent yield stability• Acceptable test weight, quality• In irrigated scab nurseries, Allegiance had shown some resistance

Seed Increase

• Seed quantities• Must work with Foundation Seed program

• Seed needs will depend on equipment of foundation seed program and growers

Example: Allegiance wheat

• KY90C-054-6: original cross was made in 1990

• 1999: Several hundred headrows grown and off-

types discarded. Keepers harvested in bulk

• 2000: Increase strips planted and rogued by

Foundation seed crew; yield: 2 bu

• 2001: Increase field grown in Woodford. KY

• 2002: Increase grown in Christian Co. KY; yield

2000 bu

Private Companies

• Similar process• Multi year testing• Major difference between companies and land grant institutions is no. of locations

• After multi year, multi loc testing, agronomists and sales people get involved

• Breeders, agronomists, seed production people all participate in release decision

Distributing the Seed

• Private companies• Big companies handle all aspects of seed production

• Usually have a group of seed producers they rely on

• Usually have their own internal quality control system

Distributing the Seed

• Public Institutions– USDA-ARS often work in conjunction with state experiment stations to release varieties

– Seedstock increase and multiplication handled by the state Foundation seed program

– If USDA is sole releasing agent, then the variety is released without any royalty

Distributing the Seed

• Public Institutions– State Land Grant Universities– Classical public varieties released non exclusively without royalty

– Very rare these days– Most small seed companies want their own unique varieties to sell

– If everyone has a public release, they don’t have a competitive edge

Distributing the Seed

• Exclusive releases• Variety may be released to a closed set of seed producers; e.g., Johnstone tall fescue

• Variety may be released to a single company; e.g., Foster wheat, Allegiance wheat

• Royalties are always charged with exclusive releases

Distributing the Seed

• Exclusive releases and royalties• Typical royalty is one cent per pound of seed

• Seed is sold in 50 lb units, so that means $0.50 / bag of seed sold

• Example: variety grown on 50,000 acres will require approximately 100,000 bags of seed which will generate $50,000 in royalties

Distributing the Seed

• At UK, the royalties are returned to the PSS department and most of the funds are returned to the breeder’s program

• Plant breeding is an expensive activity, so this can be an important source of funding

Brown bagging

• Because wheat is a self pollinated crop, farmers can save their own seed

• Limits royalties as a revenue stream• What really limits varieties is “brown bagging”

• To talk about brown bagging, we first have to talk about the Plant Variety Protection act

Plant Variety Protection

• The Plant Variety Protection Act (PVPA), enacted in December of 1970, and amended in 1994, provides legal intellectual property rights protection, to developers of new varieties of plants that are sexually reproduced (by seed) or are tuber-propagated. Bacteria and fungi are excluded. The PVPA is administered by the United States Department of Agriculture.   

Plant Variety Protection

• A Certificate of Protection is awarded to an owner of a variety after an examination shows that it is new, distinct from other varieties, and genetically uniform and stable through successive generations.The term of protection is 20 years for most crops and 25 years for trees, shrubs, and vines. The owner of a U.S. protected variety has exclusive rights to multiply and market the seed of that variety.

Plant Variety Protection

• Can choose the option whereby a variety can only be sold by cultivar name only as a class of certified seed

• A variety protected with this option cannot be “brand labeled”

• KY seed law does not permit brand labeling

Plant Variety Protection

• Or choose the option whereby a variety can only be sold with either certified or uncertified seed

• A variety protected with this option can be “brand labeled”

• IN, IL seed law does permit brand labeling

Plant Variety Protection

• This means that a variety can be released to many different seed companies under the “variety not stated” option

• In Indiana, for example the wheat breeding project will release a line to Ag Alumni. Multiple companies may bid on the line, receive rights to it, and sell it under their own name.

Back to Brownbagging

• If a variety is PVP’d then a grower may save enough seed for himself

• He may not save enough to sell to his neighbors

• Many growers will produce extra seed and then take it to be cleaned and treated and sold in a brown bag, pretending that they don’t know what variety it is

Back to Brownbagging

• This severely limits the window of opportunity that the company has to sell new seed of the variety

• This has prompted companies to plan on a time frame of about 3 years for a new variety

• If there was no brownbagging, this window would be wider.

Back to Brownbagging

• For years, companies did not prosecute violators

• Required that farmers report violations

• This has changed

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Anyone involved in the illegal selling of seed from protected varieties had best watch out. As promised, Arkansas attorneys Duff Nolan and

Mark Henry are working with investigators to find perpetrators and recoup royalty fees for their clients. The penalty for being caught can be steep. During the

second week of October, U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright signed a judgment regarding illegal

seed sales made by an operation in east-central Arkansas. "We settled the case for $150,000," says

Nolan. "The situation involved a farmer that had some wheat for sale illegally. The sale was consummated through the company and that allowed us to bring

them into the suit and go through their records. After we created an audit model and made a close review of

their records, it was determined there were several other incidences of illegal conduct with regard to Coker

wheat varieties."

Brownbagging Doesn’t Pay

In an effort to show compassion, says Nolan, the dealer was given two methods to satisfy the judgment. One is a complete cash settlement over two years. The second method is to pay $15,000 cash now and satisfy the remaining $135,000 by purchasing $550,000 worth of Syngenta products in the next two years.

Brownbagging Doesn’t Pay

Seed Certification

• Most Ag Exp Stns have a seed certifying agency that is a member of AOSCA

• In KY, this is the Kentucky Seed Improvement Association

• Members of KSIA must be approved seed producers with a track record that demonstrates the ability to produce pure seed

KSIA Responsibilities

• Quality control• Field Inspections

– Varietal purity– Isolation– Weed, insect, disease conditions– Additional field information

• KSIA inspectors evaluate each field and based on their reports, the field is either accepted or rejected.

Classes of Seed

• Breeder• Foundation• Registered• Certified - this is what is sold to farmers