We want to give a huge congratulations to all of our MCIA Scholarship Winners for 2024-2025. Each recipient must be currently enrolled at Michigan State University, Institute of Ag Technology, Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences. If recipients make acceptable academic progress, these scholarships may be renewable. Here are our recipient winners: Blaine Cords –… Continue reading
If you are thinking of getting Drybean seed tested for Blight or Anthracnose – the deadline is due by March 30th! Make sure to get us your seed by the end of the month.
In today’s world farmers are planting more acres. This means they need more equipment, bigger equipment, and more dollars invested. Everything needs to count. Gone are the days when a farm had chickens for eggs, soup, and fried wings; hogs for bacon and pork; cows for milk; and crops for feed and cash flow. In… Continue reading
The fast green test is used in seed corn to detect damage to the pericarp (seed coat), with a quick one-day turn around for accurate test results. This test provides useful insight regarding both, seed conditioning and starter fertilizer. If seed corn was harvested at a higher moisture content, more threshing is required, leading to… Continue reading
After many years of successful production and sales of MCIA Whale & MCIA Red Dragon, these two red wheat lines, we have discontinued them from our stable. If you currently have seed produced of either of these, you have until fall of 2023 to sell your production as seed prior to the expiration of the… Continue reading
The MCIA seed lab is seeing some lower quality soybeans as a result of delayed harvest due to warm wet conditions in October. It is always interesting doing multiple tests on a particular seed lot to learn more about its quality. It is especially true this year. With seed – every lot is unique, but… Continue reading
What exactly does it mean when a field inspector gives you a call and says, “I plan to be in your fields this week, just giving you a heads up!” That inspector is going to be walking your fields, taking six, 1,000 plant counts per field looking for variety off-types, weed pressure and types of… Continue reading
It has been said that hot Coffee is a substitute for bleach in a seed test which can be used to measure seed coat damage which can relate to seed germination. It is sometimes referred to as the clorox Bleach Test. In this test seeds are soaked in a weak solution of bleach and water. … Continue reading
Same crop. Same variety. Same lot number. Yes, you did read that correctly. Everything about these two pictures below is the same, except one has seed treatment. The photo on the left showing the final germination of the untreated seed sample covered in aspergillus and fusarium (mold) and the right shows the treated seed germination,… Continue reading
…Velvetleaf! We found some Velvetleaf weed seeds a few weeks ago in a wheat sample that was sent in for a germination test. This photo was taken at a magnification of 7x. These seeds are very distinct, making a ‘heart shape’ just as do the leaves of this plant. During the season, this plant has… Continue reading