October 07, 2024 | Kelly Barany, Chin Ridge Seeds (en-CA)
The dust is just settling on fall seeding and already we are thinking about spring 2025! Here is the latest seed news from Chin Ridge:
In this post we will take you behind the scenes with some info about seed production on our farm, give you some info on the newest seed varieties to consider for your farm, and our thoughts on what seed will be in high demand this coming spring.
Seed production is time consuming task. It typically takes us 3 -4 years to grow seed from a small plot up into certified seed ready to sell to our farm customers. We start out with "breeder seed" in year 1 in small plots, then the following year we seed that "select" seed from the plots and harvest "foundation" seed, in the third year we seed "foundation" seed and get "registered" seed, then finally in year 4 "registered" seed gets planted and harvested as "certified" seed; and this "certified" seed is the bulk of what gets sold to farmers.
So as you can see, it takes a long time and a large resource commitment to grow seed, so we try to pick the very best varieties of seed from among the seed companies we work with. It is always exciting when we can finally release these new varieties to our customers.
This fall we have several newly released varieties and here is some info on them:
1) CDC Durango Barley - CDC Durango is a new 2 row feed barley which is targeted to replace CDC Austenson. Durango has high yield potential, very good standability and a good disease package. (And yes, we will still have Austenson).
2) AB Dram Barley - AB Dram is a new malt barley that has the unique niche of being the first non-glycosidic nitrile (non-GN) barley available in Canada. This means that it can be malted for single malt whiskies like scotch without generating chemicals that can be have some harmful health risks.
3) Alotta Wheat - This is a brand new high yielding special purpose spring wheat for the feed and ethanol markets. We consider Alotta our replacement for Pasteur and other high yielding feed wheats. It has very good standability and excellent yield. This is going to yield alotta bushels :)
3) AAC Galore VB Soft Wheat - This is a brand new high yielding soft wheat for use in feed, ethanol and soft wheat markets. Looks like a good choice for forage production as well.
3) CDC Envy - Hard Red spring wheat - CDC Envy is an exciting new CWRS that is an early maturing, high yielding semi-dwarf variety with nice standability and a good disease resistance package. With CDC Go in it's parentage, we think CDC Envy has very strong potential.
3) Yellow Peas - Three great new yellow pea varieties are available for 2025 - AAC Julius and AAC Beyond yellow peas (both early maturing) replacing AAC Carver peas, and AAC Planet yellow peas - a mid maturity pea with nice yield and high protein. We expect yellow peas to be in high demand this spring.
1) CDC Blazer maple peas - Blazer peas have a higher yield than other maple pea varieties. We are excited to have some seed available this fall. We do not expect the seed to last long so if you want maple pea seed we advise that you book your seed this fall.
2) CDC Lima and CDC Greenstar large green lentils - Yes we have both CDC Lima CL and CDC Greenstar large green lentil seed available. Like the maple peas, we do not expect the seed to last long, so book this fall if you want to seed large greens this spring.
4) AAC Forest green peas. A nice yielding green pea with good lodging tolerance, AAC Forest is a popular variety. The green pea price is very strong right now and we expect that this seed will go fast as well.
5) AAC Stronghold Durum - stands very well and is our top sawfly resistant variety. Stronghold has yielded very well for our customers and we expect strong demand again for it this spring.
6) Esma Barley - excellent results over the last few years have made Esma a popular variety with our customers.
We have many great varieties that fit different needs for different farmers and sometimes it is difficult to anticipate which varieties will be the most popular. We encourage customers to book seed early to ensure it is reserved for next spring. Also note that we have an early pay discount for seed that is booked and paid by Dec 20th.
See our complete list of available varieties below: