Seed Conditioning Specialist Alan Gaul and Seed Lab Manager Mike Stahr facilitate Seed Science Center shortcourses and workshops for seed industry professionals around the world each year from April through August. This year a total of 13 workshops and shortcourses covered topics from seed testing and cleaning, to gravity separation, color sorting, and seed treatment.
According to Gaul, one highlight of this summer’s workshop series was the Seed Treatment Workshop in mid-July. “We had an opportunity to hold the workshop in the Hansen Agriculture Student Learning Center for the first time,” said Gaul. “Because there was basically no limitation on the amount or size of the machinery that we used for demonstrations, that workshop was an extremely effective and enjoyable one. We hope to be able to use that venue again in the future.”
The Seed Science Center at Iowa State has provided training for seed industry professionals for more than 42 years. In 2016, 160 individuals traveled from 17 states in the U.S. and 8 countries including Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Mexico, Turkey, the U.S., and Zambia to attend seed conditioning and quality workshops at Iowa State.
For more information about Seed Science Center training opportunities, visit www.seedlab.iastate.edu/training.