Sterile brome

The minimum standard at which certified cereal seed can be marketed is 99% analytical purity (99.7% for Cl and 99.9% for Cl HVS), 85% germination (80% for triticale and 75% for naked oats) and a maximum of 17% moisture content. There are also specific standards for the content of wild oats and eigot pieces and also seeds of com cockle, couch, sterile brome and wild radish. 

The brome grasses occur in both permanent pasture (e.g. meadow brome) or as weeds of arable land (e.g. sterile or barren brome). Improved varieties of bromes (e.g. Grasslands Matua) have been introduced in the past from New Zealand but have proved unsuccessful due to lack of persistency under UK conditions. 

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