Dock Seed Found In Clover Exports May Harm Grass Industry

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 13, 22 March 1950, Page 5

Dock Seed Found In Clover Exports May Harm Grass Industry

For N a country to hold export markets for its grass and clover seeds it must establish and maintain a reputation for the purity of its produce. On more than one occasion the New Zealand Department of Agriculture has received complaints from English buyers about the presence of dock seed in red clover seed shipped to England. That subject has- again been brought to notice recently by remarks madp by Mr M. Passmore, chairman of the seed committee of the National Farmers’ Union of England, who stressed that farmers are most reluctant to buy red clover seed which may contain dock seed as an impurity.

The seed-growing industry., of New Zealand has the benefit of efficient cleaning machinery, but those machines cannot perform the impossible. The Department suggests that much the simplest and in the long run probably the cheapest method of ensuring that dock seed does not imperil the Dominion’s market for redclover seed is for farmers to remove docks from their fields before seed crops are harvested.