Home saved seed

[Chae1]

I save a couple of hundred quid per tonne on cereals, more when the disease test comes back clear of bunt and fusarium and I don’t have to treat the seed.

Osr is the biggest saving of all, with a far higher mark up when buying in. Hybrids look great on paper, but I haven’t had a higher gross margin on hybrid osr than home saved conventional varieties for years.

All royalties are paid - I’m not denying the breeders their fees as we need the R&D.

How do you clean the osr seed?

 

[Brisel]

How do you clean the osr seed?

It depends on what facilities we have on the farms I worked on.

• Straight through a seed drill with a large metering unit - straight out of the bag taken off the combine once tested for germination and erucic acid
• Through a micro applicator where any trash causes blockages - send the seed away for cleaning & bagging or do it on farm with a mobile dresser or our own cleaning plant
• Seed is usually bred up from a few bags of certified seed and not normally kept more than a year, though usually overwintered (as most certified seed is overwintered!)

A few forum members have built seed cleaners making use of a cascade system and a vacuum cleaner. Paging @Clive @tw15 ….

 

[Brisel]

Anyone saving hybrid barley for seed

 

[Chae1]

It depends on what facilities we have on the farms I worked on.

• Straight through a seed drill with a large metering unit - straight out of the bag taken off the combine once tested for germination and erucic acid
• Through a micro applicator where any trash causes blockages - send the seed away for cleaning & bagging or do it on farm with a mobile dresser or our own cleaning plant
• Seed is usually bred up from a few bags of certified seed and not normally kept more than a year, though usually overwintered (as most certified seed is overwintered!)

A few forum members have built seed cleaners making use of a cascade system and a vacuum cleaner. Paging @Clive @tw15 ….

I could send some away to be cleaned. The metering unit that I sow osr with is very fine and blocks easily. It has no agitation.

 

[Brisel]

I could send some away to be cleaned. The metering unit that I sow osr with is very fine and blocks easily. It has no agitation.

I learned that lesson the hard way! Micro metering units block very quickly with bits of pod. That cost me a day’s redrilling…

 

[redsloe]

How do you clean the osr seed?

Tip from a 2 gallon bucket into a 80kg feed tub on a windy day a couple of times and I had a pefect sample last summer. Cracked seed and chaff gone.

Don't suppose you would want to do 400 acres like it!

 

[Hobbit]

Am I right in thinking that new seed beans aren’t tested for nematodes? That’s a big risk if true.

 

[delilah]

View attachment 1101805

He obviously got out of the bed the wrong side (as my Mum would say).



My Reply:

I wish to reply to David Buttle in last week’s edition.

As a cereal grower I home-save and also buy-in seed. Almost without exception the home saved is better quality, mainly due to fact that it has been over a gravity table so that I only sow the boldest 70% of the original sample. It is usually chemically treated which gives a vivid colour which contrasts with the purchased seed which often you have to wonder if it has been dressed at all. In certified seed I have frequently found ergot, split grains, small seeds, different species cereal, weed seeds, and even small nuts, bolts and other metal pieces.

I do not farm save seed to save money, nor to save the important royalty (which I always pay), it is about getting better quality seed from a chosen crop that I have been observing all year.

It is important to have choices. The choice to buy non chemically treated seed is usually denied by merchants. The choice to guarantee timely supply is important. The choice to save a few pennies is equally valid, and the choice to save carbon by not moving every tonne of seed twice, to and from the seed plant, is compelling.

I have in the past tried to get seemingly undressed bought in seed tested for chemical loading, without success. There appears to be massive resistance from both the chemical suppliers and seed processors for such a request. Are they trying to hide something?

David Buttle, being a retired seed manager, has obviously some axe to grind with the mobile seed plants, or has he got too much time on his hands? I do invite him onto my farm this autumn to see for himself the quality of the seed I shall be sowing.

The highest yielding crop I have ever grown was 5th generation home saved. Rather than the ‘con’ being mobile seed plants as David suggested, I suggest the ‘con’ is bought in seed, unless of course you are buying new genetics.



Kind regards

Question then. I saw in the GE thread that you are a fan. How will home saved seed work with that ? Will we be allowed to ? Genuine question, not looking for a spat.

 

[alomy75]

I save a couple of hundred quid per tonne on cereals, more when the disease test comes back clear of bunt and fusarium and I don’t have to treat the seed.

I quite often wonder about doing this…but don’t you worry about damping off diseases etc? I only put beret gold on ever but it is a cost…

 

[Clive]

all hail the magic seed !

It depends on what facilities we have on the farms I worked on.

• Straight through a seed drill with a large metering unit - straight out of the bag taken off the combine once tested for germination and erucic acid
• Through a micro applicator where any trash causes blockages - send the seed away for cleaning & bagging or do it on farm with a mobile dresser or our own cleaning plant
• Seed is usually bred up from a few bags of certified seed and not normally kept more than a year, though usually overwintered (as most certified seed is overwintered!)

A few forum members have built seed cleaners making use of a cascade system and a vacuum cleaner. Paging @Clive @tw15 ….

i have a machine we but but don’t bother - just drill it, makes no difference

KISS !

 

[Clive]

I quite often wonder about doing this…but don’t you worry about damping off diseases etc? I only put beret gold on ever but it is a cost…

waste of money

test your seed

 

[Brisel]

I quite often wonder about doing this…but don’t you worry about damping off diseases etc? I only put beret gold on ever but it is a cost…

In cereals? Never been an issue. If drilling late after beet etc just increase the seed rate. I only pay BSPB on area sown.

Osr? What seed treatments actually overcome damping off? Getting it past CSFB, stem weevil, rabbits and pigeons is enough of a battle. Keep the seed rates high again.

 

[Brisel]

all hail the magic seed !


i have a machine we but but don’t bother - just drill it, makes no difference

KISS !

Ok, but you have a big metering unit on your drills that will cope with that. The fluted sections on my Haztzenbichler are 5mm wide. They don't handle any rubbish. Next time, it's all going through my Mzuri metering system so won't need any cleaning.

 

[alomy75]

waste of money

test your seed

I agree with my farmer hat on; but with my technical hat on do I really trust a test probably done on less than 50 grains to be representative of 10t I am tempted to try…but on my plant it has to go through the treater to get to the bag so it’s always too easy to squirt it on!

 

[alomy75]

In cereals? Never been an issue. If drilling late after beet etc just increase the seed rate. I only pay BSPB on area sown.

Osr? What seed treatments actually overcome damping off? Getting it past CSFB, stem weevil, rabbits and pigeons is enough of a battle. Keep the seed rates high again.

Cereals. Yeah I dress my own and only pay per area but as per my other reply it’s easy to add the beret gold in…it does make it a pain to deal with surplus seed in addition to the cost so I’m keen to go without it

 

[warksfarmer]

View attachment 1101805

He obviously got out of the bed the wrong side (as my Mum would say).



My Reply:

I wish to reply to David Buttle in last week’s edition.

As a cereal grower I home-save and also buy-in seed. Almost without exception the home saved is better quality, mainly due to fact that it has been over a gravity table so that I only sow the boldest 70% of the original sample. It is usually chemically treated which gives a vivid colour which contrasts with the purchased seed which often you have to wonder if it has been dressed at all. In certified seed I have frequently found ergot, split grains, small seeds, different species cereal, weed seeds, and even small nuts, bolts and other metal pieces.

I do not farm save seed to save money, nor to save the important royalty (which I always pay), it is about getting better quality seed from a chosen crop that I have been observing all year.

It is important to have choices. The choice to buy non chemically treated seed is usually denied by merchants. The choice to guarantee timely supply is important. The choice to save a few pennies is equally valid, and the choice to save carbon by not moving every tonne of seed twice, to and from the seed plant, is compelling.

I have in the past tried to get seemingly undressed bought in seed tested for chemical loading, without success. There appears to be massive resistance from both the chemical suppliers and seed processors for such a request. Are they trying to hide something?

David Buttle, being a retired seed manager, has obviously some axe to grind with the mobile seed plants, or has he got too much time on his hands? I do invite him onto my farm this autumn to see for himself the quality of the seed I shall be sowing.

The highest yielding crop I have ever grown was 5th generation home saved. Rather than the ‘con’ being mobile seed plants as David suggested, I suggest the ‘con’ is bought in seed, unless of course you are buying new genetics.



Kind regards

David Buttle doesn’t know his head from his arse it appears. We broke our farm yield record harvest 22 from crusoe seed that’s got to be 10 yrs old. It came straight off the heap and wasn’t cleaned or dressed. Expensive though as it came out the shed against crop sold at £360/t ….. oh wait that’s about half price to new seed at that point in time. Guess what ? We’ve now planted year 11 of it.

 

[Brisel]

David Buttle doesn’t know his head from his arse it appears. We broke our farm yield record harvest 22 from crusoe seed that’s got to be 10 yrs old. It came straight off the heap and wasn’t cleaned or dressed. Expensive though as it came out the shed against crop sold at £360/t ….. oh wait that’s about half price to new seed at that point in time. Guess what ? We’ve now planted year 11 of it.

Do you ever test it?

 

[Zebbedee]

Bought at a sale a gyratory separator looks ideal for osr cleaning, what size of meshes would be best? Anyone ever use one

 

[B R C]

Writing letters like that is pretty stupid really, if you are going to make assertions then you need to back with facts, links to trials etc otherwise you just look like a bitter twit.

 

[warksfarmer]

Do you ever test it?

It did get germ tested this last autumn but no we generally don’t. Over the last 10 years if the samples not great we’ll clean it but I don’t think we’ve dressed it for about 6-7 years.
We have bought the odd tonne of different varieties and they’ve always been dressed but nothings as consistent as crusoe so far.