Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
fInAnCIAL SuPPorT
official Laboratories
Oficial laboratories may be publicly supported through tax revenues or self-supported by service fees.
Historically, state seed laboratories in the United States have provided services at minimum prices without
attempting to cover their costs. Testing fees charged were generally put into the state general fund. More
recently, oficial laboratories have had to become more cost-conscious as legislative support for such ser-
vices has decreased because of increased pressure on state budgets. Some state laboratories have been
required to become completely or nearly self-supporting; thus fees must be set at levels that will generate
adequate income to cover salary, overhead, and equipment and supplies as well as rent, light and water.
The primary beneit of subsidized funding is that such funds are usually very dependable and make
iscal management much easier than when funding is dependent on testing fees. Subsidized laboratories
do not generally face the problems of trying to anticipate personnel needs to meet seasonal luctuations in
workload. This may make it easier to recruit qualiied analysts, because they can assure full-time employ-
ment. However, such funding requires careful and often very long-range planning for laboratory expendi-
tures, because of the necessity to keep within the prescribed budget. Also, the availability of such funding
is dependent on bureaucratic and political factors that are subject to change, based on economic realities.
Managers of laboratories that generate their own funds must be aware of work luctuations that are usu-
ally beyond their control. Adverse weather conditions, for instance, may result in crop losses and therefore
reduced sample numbers. This requires that staff be reduced to the appropriate level, thus limiting the oppor-
tunity for management to guarantee full-time employment to potentially qualiied analysts. Laboratories
that are self-supporting most often generate their funding by charging for services performed. Thus, testing
fees should be established to relect the amount of time required to perform each task. Therefore, a purity
test on a chaffy seed like sideoats grams should cost more than a purity test on wheat. Germination tests
requiring special procedures or extremely long pre-chill and germination periods should also cost more than
tests for less complicated species.
Although there are several advantages of subsidized support for oficial laboratories, there are also
advantages of being self-supporting. Such laboratories usually have more internal control over expendi-
tures for supplies, purchase of new equipment and hiring decisions, assuming they have adequate inancial
resources. They can time the purchase of equipment to coincide with need, price and availability, rather than
by waiting for bureaucratic administrative approval. They may also have more freedom to raise testing fees
as needed to adjust for inlation and special needs.
In general, managers have to maintain the economic viability of the laboratory by balancing the
income and the expenses throughout the year. In some labs, 50% or more of the total samples tested in
the entire year are concentrated in a 3-month period. During this period, customers need fast results to
make marketing decisions and maintain market competitiveness. Laboratory managers have to respond
to customer needs by having extra temporary help during these times to prevent backlogs. Eficient use of
human resources is a key management job. Streamlining testing processes helps avoid redundancy, mini-
mizes errors, and reduces organizational problems. Use of modern testing tools whenever possible (e.g.,
Ergovision purity stations with mechanical seed feeder) and improving methods of testing are key factors
in quality management of seed laboratories.
Commercial Laboratories
Commercial laboratories associated with a seed company are usually responsible for testing seed for quality
control and labeling purposes as well as for research and development of new varieties for the company.
They may also test for other customers on a fee basis. When associated with one particular company, they
are irst obligated to provide testing for that company. Afterwards, tests may be performed for others. In any
