Standard Operating Procedure for Seed Potato Certification

Transcription

1 Standard Operating Procedure for Seed Potato Certification C o n t a c t T a s S e e d C e r t i f i c a t i o n S c h e m e T a s m a n i a I n s t i t u t e o f A g r i c u l t u r e U n i v e r s i t y o f T a s m a n i a P O B o x B u r n i e P h o n e : ( 0 3 ) M o b i l e : TIA These Standard Operating Procedures are the guidelines for Seed Certification Officers inspecting crops for certification under the National Certification Scheme

2 Contents Sending out Registration Forms... 3 Receiving Registrations... 3 Field Inspections... 3 Inspection One Flowering... 4 Use Field Inspection Form (on ipad) to:... 4 Walking the Crop... 4 Things to Look For... 5 Determining the Extent of a Problem... 5 At the completion of inspections:... 6 Inspection Two Early Senescence... 6 At the Completion of Second Inspection:... 7 Tuber Inspections... 7 Seed for McCains or Simplot sent to Cool store:... 8 Seed Moving Directly From one Farm to Another... 8 Fresh Market Growers... 9 Seed for Export... 9 South Australia Requirements At the Completion of Tuber Inspections Invoicing Filing the Records Seed Quality Complaints Leaf Sampling

3 Virus Sampling Generation 2 Crops Getset News Letter Fresh Market Growers Brochure New Growers Potato Breeders Rights Simseed Database

4 Sending out Registration Forms The master copy of the Registration Form can be found in the shared drive under Seed Certification/ Registration Forms. It will need very minimal changing from year to year. Print out and photocopy the form for the numbered growers per year. Grower numbers change form one year to the next. When sending out registration forms it should be labelled with the growers name, address and debtor number on the front of the from Registration forms will only need to be sent out to Certified Seed Growers. Contact Simplot & McCain to get contact details of any new growers that they have contacts with, and also send forms to any new or potential fresh market growers. Any new growers will also require copies of the National Standards and the Tasmanian Appendix. Receiving Registrations Registrations will be returned to the person nominated on the front of the form. This person needs to add the information into simseed database If this grower is new the information should be passed onto administration to be added to the accounting system. Registrations should be received by the date specified on the back of the registration form. Allocate growers and areas to seed certification officers keeping in mind to share around the areas furthest away from Devonport, depending on the number of growers that register and areas planted. Each officer organises visits to their areas to maximise efficiency of travel and overnight accommodation as required. As a guide if dealing with growers with a number of varieties and a number of paddocks only 3-4 growers visits may be achieved in a day. For growers with only the one paddock to inspect and limited travel 8-10 grower visits may be achieved in a day, depending upon the distance between growers. Up to may be looked at in a day if they are in close proximity and relatively small with one or two varieties. Field Inspections Each officer needs to find out if their grower prefers to be present for the crop inspections. Some growers feel they need to be present others may have commitments and feel they only need to be present if a problem arises. 3

5 With those growers that wish to be present, the officer needs to be able to organise the visit. One day in advance is usually adequate. It may be difficult to nominate a precise time so it is best to split the day into sections, early morning, and late morning, around midday, early afternoon, and late afternoon. Officers need to become familiar with the grower s time commitment and time situation some may only be contactable late evenings, dairy farmers, time commitments early mornings and late afternoons or employed off farm, only available late afternoons. Inspection One Flowering Stage of crop growth will be known from the planting information supplied on the registration form. As a guide, flowering usually occurs 7-8 weeks after planting for russet burbank and 8-10 weeks for most other varieties. Use Field Inspection Form (on ipad) to: Record paddock details i.e. Grower Name Cultivar / Generation Pad. Name & number Paddock area /ha Inspection date Crop Stage Disease Insects GPS co-ordinates Etc. Pictures of problems or paddock can be taken and added to the records Walking the Crop Crop s which have less than 100% row cover can be browsed up and down the rows. It is advised not to walk across the rows if the crop is at 100% row cover, but rather walk up and down blank rows or irrigation runs to avoid damage to the plants. Walking across the rows is acceptable if a disease problem needs to be accessed, as this is the only way to make an accurate assessment of the percentage of the infection. 4

6 Things to Look For Check the isolation distances and blank rows are in line with the National Standard guidelines. Ensure no volunteer potatoes are present within required distance as per National Standard guidelines. Check for damage to plants from irrigation equipment and warn the grower of the risk of disease if there is a problem. Check there are no variety mixes. Make a note of possible problem areas, such as dry banks, wet hollows, rocky patches etc. Know the disease faults and their impact upon plant health, and whether or not a situation can be redeemed, by rouging or better crop management. Some helpful references are The Compendium of Potato Diseases or the Simplot pocket Handbook of Potato Diseases. If you are not sure ask a more experienced officer. Assess crop emergence rate, and if poor, the reason behind it. Poor emergence may be attributed to seed piece decay, fertiliser burn of set or planter misses. Once the cause of poor emergence has been ascertained some judgement is required as to whether the crop is rejected. Make a note of the emergence and keep an eye on the crop as it progresses. As a guide greater than 30% misses is considered rejectable by all state certifying agencies. For problems that cannot be assessed a diagnostic test may be required, taking a piece of the plant and sending to one of the diagnostic Labs found under service providers. Take a piece of the plant effected and place in a plastic bag and keep in a cooler Note down all observations on the Field Inspection Form Determining the Extent of a Problem To achieve accurate % of fault in the crop you will need to walk the crop across the rows accessing the plant to the left of the foot and right of the right foot whilst counting the rows. Mentally count rows and with your fingers count disease faults (there may be 2-3 differing faults). At a point where the figures are becoming cumbersome, or at the fence or irrigation run, record the figures. Repeat this exercise until you are sure of the disease level. This is most important where a crop is borderline. For example: if a paddock has 200 rows, you may need to walk across the paddock maybe 5 times at different locations. From these inspections the following results may be obtained, 6/200, 1/200, 12/200, 0/200, 37/200, which gives you 56/1000, or 5.6%. You must then determine the relevance of the faults to the certification status of the crop. Discuss the problems with the grower, advise on rouging and determine the time of the return visit. At no stage is the grower to rouge any plants without officer consent. Do not assume the grower will automatically rouge plants that you have seen. You look for problems he doesn t. Note: The National Standards indicates that a problem at a level greater than 1% above the tolerance is considered redeemable by rouging anything higher will need to be rejected. 5

7 At the completion of inspections: Photocopy field inspection record sheet and send original to the grower that day. Keep the photocopy as the office record and keep with growers registration form. Enter paddock information into the Sim Seed database paddock inspection section. Enter charges for first and second field inspections into Sim Seed. Draw a neat paddock map or use the map taken with the GPS and add to the registration folder. The second field inspection should be planned for 5-7 weeks time depending on the stage of the first field inspection. Other Things to Remember When inspecting crops for the processing companies, you need to be in contact with their respective field officers. Keep each other informed ad to any problems that have occurred or have the potential to develop. The processing company s field officers may reject a crop on a field tuber assessment at any stage of the growth, so it is important to keep in contact. Grower (particularly for the fresh market) for the fresh markets may ask for advice on such things as irrigation requirements, disease and weed spray recommendation etc. Simple queries can be answered, but other more involved recommendations will need to be directed to other providers of such services e.g. Serve-Ag, Pivot etc. It is important to be observant and write down everything (negative and positive) because if a problem develops later you will need that information. Inspection Two Early Senescence Repeat field inspections routine as outlined in first visit. (If there was a particularly worrying problem observed at first inspection there may have been a return visit between then and now). Ensure rouging has been completed and that the grower is aware of what is required to complete the paddock to provisional certification standards. If rouging has not been completed or more is required to control bolters, then the officer needs to access whether a return inspection is required. Dig up a few plants and have a close look at the tubers. Diagnosis of tuber diseases can be aided by looking at the below ground stems and stolons, particularly with eelworm and powdery scab. Note down all observations on a field inspection report. 6

8 At the Completion of Second Inspection: Photocopy field inspection record sheet and send original to the grower. Keep the photocopy as the office record in the grower folder with registration form and tuber inspection form. Keep an electronic copy of all grower information in the current year in the certification file on the shared drive. Equipment needed ipad Gloves Knife Counter Spade Boot covers High visibility safety vest/coat Paper bags/ plastic bags Vehicles should be clean and not driven into growing paddocks unless there is no alternative. Tuber Inspections Equipment Required Scales Gloves 20 litre container (to collect 100 tuber sample) Tuber inspection record sheet (fresh or processing as required) Pocket knife and peeler High visibility safety vest 7

9 Seed for McCains or Simplot sent to Cool store: The seed grower has a responsibility to (but won t always) inform TIA when the seed will be arriving. The seed grower should supply the cool store with information on variety, generation and paddock identification numbers. Each load of seed arriving at cool store will be given a unique job number by the cool store, which is to be included on the inspection report by TIA inspectors and also added to the label. This will mean that bins from the same load can be identified and allows the seed to be tracked back to a report to check a tuber inspection result. Farm filled loads arriving at cool store already in bins should have a load number on the label that has been added by the grower. If this is not the case contact the grower to remind him to do this. It doesn t really matter what the numbers are, for example, if the grower has ten loads to send in he/she may just label them 1 to 10. At the cool store a sample of the graded product will be provided a minimum of 100 tubers from each 12 tonne load, and 200 tubers from a semi load. Each load needs to be inspected separately and the result kept separate from other loads. The Senior Certification Officer will draw up a roster for inspections at cool stores. Samples from the North East cool store will arrive up to twice a week so there needs to be enough bins left for the truck driver to take back when the others are dropped off. Certification officers will request the cool stores to bring the samples to the dedicated inspection site. Certification officers will not inspect tubers in locations of moving machinery or vehicles. Seed sent to the cool store will be added into Simseed as Received with the job number and date A report from simseed ( Received not Inspected ) will indicate how many samples need to be collected and which loads are waiting for a tuber inspection. Seed Moving Directly From one Farm to Another The Seed grower should inform TIA when the seed is ready and arrange a time for inspection before it leaves the farm. Officers will collect the tuber sample at least 200 tubers from as many bins or 1 tonne bags as possible. 8

10 Fresh Market Growers If a tuber inspection is required, the seed grower needs to inform TIA and arrange a time for inspections when the seed is ready and before it leaves their farm. Officers will collect the tuber samples from bins of approx.., 100 tubers per 12 tonne. In the case of 50kg bags, pick a bag at random (it will contain on average 400 tubers) and take a sample of at least 100 tubers. Seed for Export Growers will contact the certification officers to arrange a time for inspection of tubers. For potatoes going out of the state growers will provide the certification officer with all the relevant test results. Once the tubers have been inspected and pass the certification requirements and tests results by the certification officer have been collected the appropriate labels will be issued to the grower. Most export seed will go in new poly1 tonne bags into South Australia and Victoria. New ½ tonne bins are also sent. Seed export into Asian locations may be packaged in 25, 30, or 50 kg hessian bags or 20 kg cartons. Seed will be inspected either on the farm (loaded directly from harvesting, or after storage, graded in farm shed), or inspected in one of the grading operations at the cool stores (see list of contacts). If seed is being loaded directly from harvesting operations, and there is a concern regarding seed quality, then it is an advantage to inspect the operation, as the grower may need advice on what is needed to achieve the certification standard before the load gets too far advanced. It is difficult to regrade seed to meet the certification standards once the seed is in 1 tonne bags. At on farm inspection sites, when seed is being sent in 1 tonne poly bags, it is best to see the seed before the bags are loaded onto the truck, as the bags stand about 1.8 meters high. The officer can either use a ladder or a step to obtain a random sample from a number of bags being sent. It is also difficult to assess seed lines on loaded trucks, especially if they are being sent in ½ tonne bins, because the bottom layer becomes difficult to access. If viewing the load on top of a trailer beware of OH&S aspects e.g. overhead obstacles, losing balance. The officer does not have to inspect the load if they feel it is dangerous to do so. All loads to Western Australia and exported out of Australia must be accompanied by a Plant Health Certificate and will require an AQIS inspection to meet the required standards for dirt adhesion. Certification officers do not have authority to issue growers with plant health certificates it is up to the grower/company to contact quarantine and organise these for them self and make sure they have got the latest paper work. The grower will need to let the buyer know that the seed is on the way, estimated arrival day to mainland wharf, and Transport Company being used. If seed in bags is wet with Tecto and tubers appear smeared, be prepared to wash the inspection sample so tuber faults can be seen. Smearing hide s faults and you need to be able to stand by your assessment. Rejected seed lines can still be sent as uncertified seed (with no ticket attached) if the buyer agrees to accept the faults in the seed line. A letter stating that the seed line achieved Provisional Certification may be requested with the seed. This may also explain defect levels or reason why seed was rejected. 9

11 South Australia Requirements In meeting condition 18 of the South Australian plant quarantine standards Tasmanian Certified Seed Scheme for all seed going into SA will have the relevant certification inspections by the Tasmanian potato certification authority Condition Potatoes for propagation/planting including one-off seed (smalls) from a crop grown in a state with a current and recognised freedom certificate for potato cyst nematode must be accompanied by documentation that verifies the origin of the crop e.g. Certified Seed Label/Tag attached to individual containers, Plant Health Certificate or Declaration. Proof: Documentary proof of origin e.g. Certified Seed Label/Tag attached to individual containers, Plant Health Certificate or Declaration (see Appendix 7). If the above condition can be met and the required origin proof accompanies them seed potatoes or potatoes for propagation may commence entering South Australia without PCN testing immediately Importing potatoes into Tasmania is not allowed under the quarantine laws What to do Officers look for rejectable faults as described in the National Standards for Certification of Seed Potatoes. Record tuber inspection information on ipad record sheet. Record all ticket numbers for the load on record sheet (if known). Note down all observations on a tuber inspection report and calculate the percentage faults. Indicate on the form if the load has passed certification or not. If loads for a particular grower are filing with very high percentage problems particularly diseases, contact the relevant field officer immediately to determine whether further inspections are required. Be aware of OH&S requirements around machinery at grading operations, e.g. moving forklifts and automatic bin filling machinery. Always wear an high visibility safety vest (there is one in each car or use a cool store one). Remember that seed is usually covered in chemical e.g. Techto, so gloves should be worn and hands washed after inspections. At the Completion of Tuber Inspections Make sure all information on the report is complete including grower, job number, buyer and result Enter information into simseed database ASAP as the cool stores, processors and growers are relying on this information. For fresh market growers make sure all information is entered into simseed including all relevant information Send original of the report to the grower and once information has been entered into simseed file. File another copy in the grower folder and transfer an electronic copy to the shared drive. 10

12 During the busy times a mail out of tuber inspection forms can be done on Mondays and Thursdays. The processing companies do their accounts at the end of each month and will therefore require all information up to the end of the month as soon as possible. At the beginning of each season a blank booklet needs to be made up in which the labels that are issued can be recorded As labels are distributed the date, label numbers, number of labels, grower or cool store and variety need to be noted on the shared drive under labels issued. Any farm filled materials must arrive at the cool store labelled with Provisional labels if the tubers are not going over the grader. In this case the grower will be sent the labels and is required to add their own unique job number to the labels. All seed will initially be labelled with a Provisional label at the cool store. Provisional labels can be supplied to growers or cool stores before the inspection or Provisional or Certified labels can be supplied after the inspection result is known. Remember Seed can be sold as Provisional without a tuber inspection once the field inspections have been passed, unless a tuber inspection is required by the processing company. No Certified labels are to be sent to growers before the seed has been tuber inspected. Invoicing Invoices will be sent out in June and December All invoicing is maintained in an electronic database called Simseed on the web. June invoicing will have an 85% charge for services of certified seed inspections. December invoicing will have a 15% charge for the remaining services Advisory services will be charges at an hourly rate set by TIA plus a vehicle charge i.e., (PCN testing and administration). 11

13 Queries from clients should be dealt with as soon as possible. Filing the Records Records for each season should be stored in grower folders with their company names and contact details Ipads for collection of all paddock and tuber inspection reports Folders for storing all grower details Seed Quality Complaints There are three basic types of complaints: 1. In Storage or after purchase buyer complaint The seed line needs to be viewed and assessed. This may be done at the place of storage or place of sale. The officer needs to ensure that the tubers the buyer is receiving are of a quality consistent with certification standard quality. If not, the grower will need to be contacted, and tuber inspections will be required before any more seed is sold from that grower. 2. After Cutting Pre Planting Break down of a seed line the officer will need to assess the possible causes of breakdown and identify whether it is the seed line or storage/handling problems that are at fault. If possible, trace the seed line back to paddock observations and information. 3. In Commercial Field Poor Emergence. The commercial grower will usually blame the seed line. Handle as in 2 above and check that the paddock conditions were not to blame. e.g. heavy rain after planting or too dry. In all Cases: 12

14 The seed labels indicate that the buyer of certified seed has two weeks after the purchase of the seed to complain to TIA once this time has lapsed the seed grower cannot be expected to take any responsibility for a problem with seed. Sometimes it is very difficult to make the critical decision whether or not to reject a crop or seed line. A good rule of thumb is that you have to be able to justify you decision and stand by it if it is challenged. Remember that certification officers don t make the rules, but have been given the authority to uphold a standard. The following are disease that can potentially pose a problem Late Blight It is a good idea to get a feel for what percentage of plants are affected in the usual way, and then to decide how far the disease has progressed i.e. is it moving down the stems or remaining in the foliage? Is the disease still active? Decide whether spraying will prevent the problem from progressing, or whether it is too far advanced. With blight, you will need to make a visit after spraying and note all of your observations at each stage. A decision on whether or not to reject the crop does not have to be made when the disease is first seen, but can be left until closer to the end of the season when the full extent of the problem can be assessed, including tuber damage. If appropriate, a section of the paddock can be rejected. Rhizoctonia When Rhizoctonia is diagnosed in the crop, work out the percentage of plants infected. If the plant infected is only of minor significance, i.e. only brown infection markings on plant stems, then there is no plant health risk (even though it may cause yield reduction). There is no requirement to rouge the plants at this stage. Rhizoctonia becomes a rougable fault when and if sclerotes appear on the tubers, or when and if the plant forms a wild plant type with misshapen aerial tubers. Remember that a percentage greater than 1% higher than the tolerance in the field is almost impossible to rouge out. Rhizoctonia may also cause poor emergence and crops can be rejected for this at first inspection. Powdery & common Scab Under the guidelines, powdery scab has a tolerance of 2% while common scab has a tolerance of 4%. If the inspecting officer is unsure of the type of scab then field plant observations recorded at field inspection time may be of assistance (i.e. powdery scab root damage to plants). Some laboratory confirmation may be required at tuber inspection. It can be very difficult to distinguish between the two scabs but as a rule Powdery Scab is finer and more on the surface with raised flaps around the edge of lesions and possibly visible green spores. Common scab is more deep pitted and often has larger, more round lesions. Silver Scurf 13

15 Cosmetic blemish caused by silver scurf is of minor importance to the processing industry and certifiers do not reject any lines within Tasmania for silver scurf. If a seed line is to be exported, then officers need to be aware of the buyer requirements for the seed line, as some buyers require seed devoid of any cosmetic disease. Silver scurf can be difficult to see without washing the tubers and it must be remembered that the percentage that you see today may be very different in a few weeks time. The inspecting officer must be mindful of the market that the tubers are entering and make a decision after weighing up all the information. Officers need to ensure that they present no risk of disease transfer from properties. This is important at all times, but especially important in the case of closed farming properties. Closed farms are properties that are fully self-sufficient in their seed potato production. That is, all seed generations are produced on the property with no introduction That is, all seed generations are produced on the property with no introduction of any other seed lines. This provides the property with lower potential disease problems. Therefore, all officers need to ensure that they minimise the risk of transfer of pests and diseases. Transfer of soil from one location to another is the major disease transfer risk. Footwear and clothing To minimise the risk, all footwear needs to be maintained in a clean condition and covered with disposable booties before entering a paddock. Late blight spores and some viruses can be transferred from an infected area. Therefore use waterproof over-trousers, or leggings when walking through an infected area. Leaf Sampling Leaf sample any plant showing possible virus symptoms. On areas less than 0.5 ha, 50 leaflets are enough. Areas of 1 ha require 100 leaflets samples. Areas greater than 1 ha require 300 leaflet samples. 300 leaflets are enough for any area and will provide a very low level or error when testing. Seal leaves in lots of 20 in plastic lock bags and then place in a brown paper bag with o Growers name o Variety o Date Carry small polystyrene esky in car for placing samples in so they do not over heat. Store leaves in refrigerator unless sending straight away. When sending any plant samples to NTRL (New Town Laboratories) for analysis, ensure plenty of detail is provided on attached paper work 14

16 Plant and /or tuber material submitted to NTRL for scientific analysis Any plant or tuber material that has an unidentifiable health problem, or for which you need conformation of the cause, can be appropriately packaged in a suitable box and sent from the mail room labelled Attention: PLANT PATHOLOGY New Town Laboratories St John s Park Drive New Town Tas 7008 Persons to contact at NTRL are: Peter Cross (for ELISA testing) by phone or When sending material, contact NTRL so that they are aware of what is being sent, and ensure all relevant information is recorded and sent with the material. Virus Sampling Generation 2 Crops All G2 crops are virus sampled for viruses set by the industry each season A sample of 300 leaves taken across the field in lots of 20 placed into small paper bags and then into a large bag labelled with the grower or company name, date, field Id, generation and variety is written on the outside of the bag is required by the laboratory. For fields with more than one variety the 300 leaves can be broken down by variety. Paper bags Water proof marker Esky Getset News Letter Getset newsletters will be sent out to growers after each TSPAC TasSeed Potato Advisory Committee meeting 15

17 Fresh Market Growers Brochure Once registrations are complete (February) the grower brochure can be updated from the current year. Soft copies are saved on the shared drive under Industry Development/Grower Brochure. Usually the grower brochure only list growers of G4 (i.e. material that is for sale) of each variety but if a grower is happy to sell early generation material then they can be listed as well. Check that all information with regards to the guidelines, variety descriptions and contact details for officers is correct. The grower s brochure can be ed, faxed or posted to anyone requesting varieties listed on the brochure and a copy will be displayed on the TIA website. New Growers Potential new growers will require advice and will need to be asked the following questions: Can you achieve at least a five year rotation? Does the growers land have adequate drainage? Do the grower have adequate water storage/supply? Can the grower finance the crop? Can the grower market the crop? Can the grower provide crop husbandry skills i.e. own or can obtain necessary equipment, i.e. contractors for planting, harvesting, spraying. Some growers may require a pre-planting inspection of the paddock. This usually occurs when growers are unsure of the requirements for growing seed potatoes or if they are in a new area. Send the grower a copy of the: National Standards for Certification of Seed Potatoes (including the Tasmanian Appendix), New grower booklet (the ins and outs of seed potatoes) Registration form. Any relevant info e.g. fresh market brochure, recent Getset. Potato Breeders Rights Any potato variety that is protected by PBR cannot be planted by any person or organisation without the authorisation from the PBR applicant or their agent(s). For material under PBR the applicant requires Security Agreement to be signed by the potential user. A copy of this document will be sent to this office to confirm that we can release material to the potential user. A current PBR list on all varieties in Australia is on file 16

18 Simseed Database Simseed is the database used for tracking all aspects of the Certification Scheme. Users will need the user name and password to obtain access to the system. Procedures for entering information into the system are as follows:- Username Password Login 17

19 Service and Providers NAME CONTACT DETAILS PHONE ViCSPA Nigel Crump LaTrobe Plant health diagnostics (03) University SARDI Plant health diagnostics (08) Quarantine Devonport (03) Quarantine SA data/assets/pdf_file/0008/136826/pqs_version_10.0_- _14_November_2013.pdf ViCSPA 18