What you need to know about farm-saved seed from combinable crops

If you grow cereals or oilseed rape and use the harvested seed to establish the next crop, this is called farm-saved seed (FSS). This guidance explains the rules, including the payments required and provides top tips for success.

FSS forms a major part of the market. It offers farmers:

• A relatively low-cost source of seed
• Control over seed quality, provenance and treatment
• Seed for early drilling (no delays)

FSS differs from officially certified seed, which meets specific conditions and controls for sale – relating to, for example, germination capacity, varietal identity/purity and contaminant levels.

If you plan to farm-save seed, invest a little extra in the crop. Good quality seed is the starting point in cereal production, so it's important to give seed crops the best chance to deliver optimum yield and quality.

It is important to understand the quality of cereal seed intended for drilling, especially the presence of seedborne diseases. This page includes the tests and thresholds available for certified, farm-saved and organic seed sources of wheat and barley.

A crop’s development starts before growth stage 0 – with the production of seed on the parent plant. It is important to understand seed-lot health because it influences approaches to storage and drilling. Find out about the factors that affect seed health and the laboratory tests for germination, vigour and viability available.

Under the Plant Varieties Act 1997, farmers must declare their use of FSS and pay for any eligible varieties grown. These payments contribute toward plant breeding and varietal development.

Payments apply to cereal and oilseed varieties (as well other combinable crops) and have traditionally been made to the British Society of Plant Breeders (BPSB). However, the Breeders’ Intellectual Property Office (BIPO) now also collects royalties on behalf of several plant breeders.

The BSPB and BIPO websites provide a crop-by-crop list of varieties that are eligible for payment.

FSS legislation excludes hybrid varieties, so they may not be farm-saved. Hybrid varieties produce variable offspring when farm-saved, altering their characteristics and yield potential. 

FSS must not be marketed, purchased, given or transferred to another business for re-planting.