- For 15 years, certified cereal seed material has been available on the market under the Nasiona Premium brand.
- During the weekend Agrotech Minikowo fair, a press conference was held to summarize the cooperation.
- During the conference, the cooperating companies shared their tasks in the project.
- The aim of this program is to provide high-quality certified seed material along with comprehensive advice on the cultivation and fertilization of cereals.
As mentioned during Saturday's press conference, the aim of the Premium Seeds program is to promote and encourage agricultural producers to use effective and modern grain production technologies based on certified seed material of the latest varieties with high yield potential. As noted, these activities help to increase the profitability of cereal production and, on the other hand, increase the competitiveness of agricultural farms on the international arena. In all this, it is important that domestic products are competitive in terms of quality but also can be produced at the lowest possible costs.
Dr. Dariusz Majchrzycki, Sales and Marketing Director, Danko HR Photo. M. Wójcik
A project close to agricultural practice
It's been 15 years since this program has been running.
– In 2009, I met the president of Top Farms in Poznań, at the headquarters of the management board, and together we wondered what to do to provide farmers with more certified cereal seed material. 15 years ago, the replacement of seed material was about 8 or 10% – recalled Dr. Dariusz Majchrzycki from DANKO HR at the beginning of the program.
As Majchrzycki continued, meeting at numerous field days, fairs and discussions, he tried to find out what is the reason why farmers do not want to take advantage of breeding progress. Their answers varied. Some did not know about the benefits of using it, others claimed that such material was expensive and not of the best quality and believed that their own material was better. At the same time, by talking to them about the technology of growing cereal species, they were advised on how to grow given varieties, at what rate to sow them, and how to continue cultivating them.
read more
Danko Field Days 2024 in Szelejewo Drugi
– Hence the idea was born to offer farmers not only the seeds themselves, but the entire package related to them. Premium seeds are, on the one hand, certified seed material of the best varieties whose genetics are provided by Danko, with very good quality parameters, and on the other hand, information about the modern technologies for growing a given variety that we propose, said Dariusz Majchrzycki during the meeting.
The seeds are produced in the fields of the Top Farms farming group and carefully prepared using the latest cleaning and dressing technologies. In addition to fungicide protection, Premium Seeds are treated with a biostimulating preparation from Timac Agro, which gives plants a good start, proper resistance to abiotic stresses and good initial vigor.
Danko HR brings its breeding progress
Danko HR contributes its breeding progress, i.e. the best cereal varieties, to the program. As noted, Danko HR is a company with a long-standing breeding tradition. It breeds the most economically important species in this part of Europe and is the owner of over 120 varieties, which it offers in 19 countries.
Currently, cereal breeding must provide varieties that are adapted to local, changing environmental conditions, have a good disease resistance profile, high winter hardiness, resistance to lodging, sprouting and tolerance to unfavorable environmental conditions, and all this respond to market needs.
As mentioned at the meeting, one of the most important varieties from the project is Caryatyda winter wheat. This is a variety bred in Poland. It is characterized by a high level of yield and the grain has good purchasing parameters. This means that the farmer can successfully sell grain of this variety for milling and baking purposes. In addition to good quality and disease resistance, it is characterized by high winter hardiness. The Program still includes varieties such as: Ostroga, which has been very popular for many years, and the Hondia variety, which entered the program in 2014, and Bordeaux winter barley is also present.
read more
What consumption of certified seed material in 2023? We have the data
The quality of the qualification is in the hands of Top Farms
The President of the Management Board of Top Farms, Leszek Lipski, focused on discussing the details of seed production.
– The production of seed propagation is significantly different from commercial production. First of all, we care about the health of plants and eliminating species confusion, for example, we only use seed cultivation after dicotyledonous plants (this is not a requirement, but it is an internal requirement in our company). Crop rotation is very important. We use it especially for difficult varieties, such as bony wheat varieties. We attach great importance to protection, said President Lipski.
In order to manage this entire process, which is clearly different from commercial production, management systems have been introduced in seed production. A central seed group was established, which includes agronomists who deal with seed propagation. The result of their work is a checklist covering the entire seed production. Each stage is confirmed by the signature of the person responsible for that stage.
The company's priority is the preparation of seed material and ensuring the quality of production. Particularly important importance is attached to the cleaning stage. In practice, after preparing the seed material of one variety, the entire line is cleaned for up to 8 hours to ensure that when the next one is prepared, there will be no confusion. The entire procedure is related to this, ending with the fact that only the plant manager has to come and say whether it is allowed to start new production.
President of Top Farms Agro – Leszek Lipski. Photo M. Wójcik
Recommendations from Top Farms Photo. M. Wójcik
Timac Agro provides biostimulation, nutrition and professional advice
Although Timac Agro has been cooperating in the project for a short time, it wants to contribute to the initiative.
– To produce a good crop, each plant must be properly nourished, have good vigor and be resistant to many unfavorable phenomena. We really want the Timac Agro company to be recognizable with the Nasiona Premium brand (..), so we want to add to the project what we are very good at – said Piotr Kotowski from Timac Agro Polska.
Piotr Kotowski, Timac Agro Polska, Photo. M. Wójcik
As Kotowski explained, Timac Agro, through its dense network of advisors, wants to reach farmers with knowledge and share experience in the field of nutrition and biostimulation of cereals. During the conference, he gave several illustrative examples of how to professionally approach fertilization technology for this group of crops.
read more
Timac Agro. The power of fertilization and biostimulation presented in the field
Two products play the most important role in the project. The most important of them is Fertiactyl SD liquid seed fertilizer. It ensures better initial vigor of cereals and increases the development of the root system. As Kotowski reminded here, an efficient root system means a good supply of water and nutrients to plants and better resistance to abiotic stresses, including drought. He also distinguished the Astelis biostimulator, a product from the DNA Performance group. It has a foliar-soil effect intended for use in the early stages of development of all cereal species.
read more
Piotr Kotowski from Timac Agro during the Rapeseed Academy about the role of soil
Slide from the presentation of Timac Agro Photo. M. Wójcik
Kotowski also announced something special that the company has prepared for the 15th anniversary as part of the Nasiona Premium program. Two varieties, Karyatyda winter wheat and Bordeaux winter barley, in an amount of 1,000 tons will be treated with Fertiactyl SD liquid seed fertilizer. Farmers who are the first to choose these two varieties will be able to purchase the material at a regular price, and it will be already treated with seed fertilizer.