| back to FRSA home Minutes of July 19, 2002 FRSA Seed Analyst Forum and Business Meeting Submitted by Mike Bricker, FRSA Secretary, USDA-REE-ARS, National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation (NCGRP), Fort Collins, Colorado The July 19, 2002 FRSA Seed Analyst Forum and Business Meeting was held at the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation, Fort Collins, Colorado. Hosting agencies were the NCGRP and the Colorado Seed Laboratory. FRSA provided a lunch of meat/cheese cold cuts tray and fruit tray for those in attendance. Members present for the Seed Analyst Forum and Business Meeting were MikeBricker, Jim Bruce, Pat Conine, Marilyn Milhous, Michael Nelson, Jim Stanelle,and Laurie Thoma. There were 11 guests presents whom were participantsin the week-long Seed Anatomy, Identification and Purity workshop hostedby STEP (Seed Technology Educational Program), being held at NCGRP. Guests were Michael Aberle from Ransom Seed Laboratory; Victor Cardenasof Seminis-California; Rayshell Colson from the Kansas Crop Improvement Assoc.; Gary V. Cook, Mary Jo Redmon, and Susan Schmidt from the Illinois Crop Improvement Assoc.; Kari Fiedler from Mid-West Seed Services, Inc.; Charlotte L. Miller from USDA-APHIS-SW-NWRC; Karen Nastick from Applewood Seed Company; Myrna Ulmer from the University of Wyoming; and Kathi Vanzant from the Arkansas State Seed Laboratory. The Seed Analyst Forum began at 9:07 AM with a welcome from Cheryl Johnson, FRSA President. Cheryl introduced the program’s speakers. Jim Bruce led off the Seed Analyst Forum with a demonstration of the STEP SeedImage web site: www.seedimages.com which will be an integral part of the Distance Education Seed Analyst courses available through Colorado State University’s Distance Education Department. Subscription to the SeedImage database is now available, with a subscription link on the AOSA web site (www.aosaseed.com) under ‘Links’, U.S. Federal Government, USDA/CSU Seed Database. Annette Miller provided a review of the Colorado Noxious Weed List with a handout of the Prohibited (primary) Noxious Weeds and Restricted (secondary) Noxious Weeds, and a few Prohibited Noxious weed seed samples which were recently received from the Colorado Dept. of Agriculture [Alhagi pseudalhagi (Camelthorn), Chondrilla juncea (Skeletonweed, rush), Salvia aethiopis (Sage, Mediterranean), Taeniatherum caput-medusae (Medusahead), and Tamarix sp. (salt-cedar)]. A number of plant herbarium plates of the Colorado Noxious weeds, borrowed from the CSU Plant Sciences Dept., were displayed. Annette gave the group a good web site reference link to the California Dept. of Food and Agriculture for weed photos: http://pi.cdfa.ca.gov/weedinfo/photogalleryframeset.html Annette made available to the Forum attendees a new booklet: Common Weed Seedlings of the Central High Plains, published January 2000, by the Department of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management, Colorado State University. The booklet costs $4.00 and can be ordered at hfspp@lamar.colostate.edu . Following a short break, Laurie Thoma and Annette explained the Mobile Investigations program and for the remainder of the Seed Analyst Forum a critique of the program’s practicum was performed. A representative from CSU’s LifeSciences Mobile Investigations was present at the critique, whom provided ideas throughout the critique to structure the practicum to meet Mobile Investigations’ standards for a Lab. The practicum covered 5 crops: alfalfa, Echinecea, ryegrass, sugar beets, and wheat. The Forum attendees split into 5 groups and the 5 crops were rotated through each group. Laurie and Annette had prepared a purity sample of each of the crops which contained weed seeds, inert material, and other crops. Along with the purity sample was a questionnaire regarding that crop. The questionnaire required listing the sample’s contaminates, determining if any of the weed seeds were on the Colorado noxious weed list, determining pure seed percentage using data provided, and general questions about the crop. A reference card had been prepared for each crop which provided information about the crop which related to questions on the questionnaire. Each group had the responsibility to complete the questionnaire on each of the 5 crops and make notes to improve each crops’ questionnaire for uniformity between the crops (five different seed analysts made up a questionnaire for the crop assigned to that analyst, following an outline of what was to be covered on the questionnaire, however, no two questionnaires were formatted the same). At the end of the groups rotating through the five crops, a review of the questionnaires was held and recommendations made to improve and standardize the format of the questionnaires. Along with the practicum questionnaires for the students was a Teacher’s sheet for each crop with the answers to the questions on the Student questionnaire for each of the 5 crops in the practicum. Laurie and Annette will use the critique to refine the practicum and make a presentation to Mobile Investigations. Mobile Investigations will make the final decision of whether the practicum will become a Lab in the Mobile Investigations program and assign a degree of difficulty, thereby making the practicum available to 9-12th grade students in schools throughout Colorado. To complete the Seed Analyst Forum, Laurie presented a review of the Detectable Endosperm On-Line (Internet) Referee on 5 species of wheatgrass. The results of the referee provided some interesting questions and a revised on-line (Internet) referee is to be developed to better pinpoint why certain selections in the first referee were chosen. Part 2 of the referee is available on the FRSA web site: www.frsa.org , under ‘Contents’, Special item: Referee: Grass pure seed referee part 2. The end result of the referee on Detectable Endosperm is to formulate a proposed Rule Change to Section 2.7a and 2.7g of the AOSA Rules. The Seed Analysts Forum adjourned at 3:45 PM. FRSA Business Meeting Immediately following lunch an abbreviated FRSA Business Meeting was held. Mike Bricker, secretary, in the absence of the FRSA President, called the business meeting to order at 1:00 pm. The minutes of the April 10, 2002 FRSA meeting were approved as provided on the FRSA web site. Mike Bricker provided an update of the 2002 FRSA memberships and sponsorships (Individual Members at 18, Support Members at 10, and Sponsors at 14 for a total of 42 for 2002). Mike announced the recipient of the 2002 Anna Lute Award was James Effenberger of the California Department of Food and Agriculture. The Anna Lute Award was presented at the AOSA/SCST Annual Meetings. An announcement was made that SCST had approved the Application for Continuing Education Points form proposed by FRSA. The form is now available on the SCST web site: www.seedtechnology.net , under ‘Applications’, scroll to bottom of Applications to: NEW – Application For SCST Continuing Education Points. Pat Conine provided the Treasurer’s Report. The report was found to be in good standing. Mike Bricker and Mike Diderksen performed an audit of the 2001 FRSA books, finding the accounting to be true and in good standing. Annette Miller presented the Web Site Administrator’s Report. Upcoming would be Part 2 of the Detectable Endosperm On-Line (Internet) referee, soon to be available on the FRSA web site and with a link to the AOSA web site. There was no Other Old Business. New Business Jim Stanelle, Colorado Seed Growers Assoc. Manager and Linda Munk of CSGA asked FRSA to provide a presentation at the December 2002 CSGA Annual Meetings being held in Fort Collins, Colorado. The members agreed to providing a presentation similar in content to the previously provided presentations. Jim asked to have information on GMOs and GMO Testing Procedures, the shipping of seed Internationally, and Karnal Bunt in Wheat be included in this year’s presentation. A committee designated the CSGA Presentation Committee was formed with Annette Miller, Laurie Thoma, Pat Conine, and Mike Bricker as committee members. An outline of the presentation is to be made at the October 9 FRSA Business Meeting. There being no Other New Business, the business meeting adjourned at 1:25 PM and the afternoon session of the FRSA Seed Analyst Forum resumed. The next scheduled FRSA Meeting is a general business meeting to be held on October 9, 2002 at 1:00 PM MDT, at STA Laboratories, 1821 Vista View Drive, Longmont, Colorado. Hosts will be Barbara Atkins (barbara.atkins@stalabs.com) and Mary Loring (mary.loring@stalabs.com), (303)651-6417. This is a new location for STA Laboratories in Longmont. For directions contact Barbara or Mary. back to top |