Farm saved seed

[grommet]

i guess to my simple mind - why wouldnt you want the biggest boldest seed to grow your crop from. We are spending so much bloody money on it you may aswell start with the best you can.

Any evidence of this?

 

[ringi]

i guess to my simple mind - why wouldnt you want the biggest boldest seed to grow your crop from. We are spending so much bloody money on it you may aswell start with the best you can.

How do you know what is best for your field other then collecting your own seed from the plants that germinated well?

 

[4course]

Those that always sow a hundredweight and a half to the acre regardless are ahead of the game and compensating for that.
If seed is shrivelled then they are planting more of them, reducing the need for so many tillers.

The old boys shown to be ahead of the game,... again

 

[grommet]

How do you know what is best for your field other then collecting your own seed from the plants that germinated well?

Again i am assuming that the biggest boldest heaviest seed has the most what we suffolk boys call "mother" in - think we are agreeing on the same point, just from different directions

 

[Simon C]

Maybe smaller seeds need less moisture to germinate?

 

[tullah]

Maybe smaller seeds need less moisture to germinate?

So when saving own trailer load of seed is 17% moisture preferable to 10%?
17% should see you through till November in half ton bags

 

[Steevo]

for seed I reckon its not the cleaning that needs attention its the screening ,(cleaning hss to remove weed seeds whilst good practice only takes out a miniscule amount of seeds that are left in the field in your particular soil ) most dress out a few % of small/broken grain along with as many spurious seeds as they can, however if you reverse the procedure and only use the larger bigger heavier grain by removing a larger % of screenings you will end up with bigger bolder seed. This seed has more energy in it to give a vigorous plant/seedling survival which could well be more important due to the smaller grain size and what looks like being drier seedbeds

But if you drill based on kg/ha rather than TGW, you end up with twice as many small seeds compared to a fewer bigger, bolder grains so can afford for some to struggle.

Personally I can never have crops thick enough so happy to have some extra seeds in the field.

 

[Steevo]

Those that always sow a hundredweight and a half to the acre regardless are ahead of the game and compensating for that.
If seed is shrivelled then they are planting more of them, reducing the need for so many tillers.

You beat me to it - I should have kept reading before posting!