How much you paying for Seed Barley?

[SilliamWhale]

Planet £430.

Is that about what it is?

 

[Breckland Boy]

Paid £400 last week for Laureate. Sowing instead of Sugar Beet.

 

[Chae1]

Planet £430.

Is that about what it is?

Yes. I've been quoted slightly more and slightly less.

Pretty good considering malting barley was £130/t at harvest.

 

[HarryB97]

I got quoted 385 for Planet back in September.

 

[Scouse eater]

Might seem like a really stupid question but not being a farmer, why do you need to buy "seed barley"? Isn't it just the same as ordinary "barley"?
I've got wheat, barley and oats from a "corn dolly" and planted them in separate plant pots and they grew! Was that a fluke and a lucky gamble?
Many thanks.

 

[farmerm]

Might seem like a really stupid question but not being a farmer, why do you need to buy "seed barley"? Isn't it just the same as ordinary "barley"?
I've got wheat, barley and oats from a "corn dolly" and planted them in separate plant pots and they grew! Was that a fluke and a lucky gamble?
Many thanks.

Not a stupid question. The better the quality of grain you plant the better crop it should produce. The most noticeable difference between barley and seed barley is usually what happens to it after it has been combined. Grain for seed usually goes though a cleaning process to remove any weeds seeds which you certainly do not wish to be planting and other debris such as husks and straw which may have not be fully removed during combining and block up drill spouts. Once cleaned a seed dressing may be applied which gives the grain some protection from soil and seed born fungal diseases and in some cases some insects and insect born virus too. Crops grown specifically as seed crops have to be inspected and free from various weeds and fungal infections which may be tolerated in a crop that is not for seed. Sometimes we homesave grain and have it cleaned and dressed, we have some beans cleaned and bagged for seed this morning... sometimes we buy new seed to take advantage of the improvements brought about though new varieties that have been developed... either bought in or home saved we have to pay seed royalties to the plant breeders, this allows them to continue developing new varieties to replace older ones which all too soon become susceptible to new strains of fungal and viral plant diseases, its an arms race.

 

[Rookie]

Couple of weeks ago, Planet ranged from £400 to £440/t, and Diablo £410 to £440. Standard dressing.

 

[thorpe]

Might seem like a really stupid question but not being a farmer, why do you need to buy "seed barley"? Isn't it just the same as ordinary "barley"?
I've got wheat, barley and oats from a "corn dolly" and planted them in separate plant pots and they grew! Was that a fluke and a lucky gamble?
Many thanks.

the seed trade are scum were running out of firms we havnt had a claim against.

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

I've just changed my cropping plan to avoid buying ridiculously expensive seed. They are are a cunch of thieving bunts in my opinion, but we seem clever enough to allow ourselves to be held to ransom on a yearly basis so who's to blame?

 

[California]

We paid £395 for 5 tons Laureate (cheapest quote) but that was probably booked in December (we grew all farm saved last year but germ on ours this year was only 80% hence it was feed)
It was delivered last week and we sold our last load of feed barley for £147/ton just into the new year. Last year I think the cost of cleaning, spd and royalty was around £160/ton. So all in all we probably could have saved just under £90 a ton by saving our own seed (not taking into account our own time with the seed dresser etc.)
Obviously at 5 tons that makes a £450 saving which is not to be sniffed at but there are extra costs with certified seed so I'd hardly describe seed at that price as daylight robbery. Plus the merchant has to make a margin and I don't begrudge them that.

 

[Chae1]

Merchant up here making it terms of contract you have to buy seed from them to get malting barley contracts. £440/t.

Any other companies doing this?

 

[Sandy]

Merchant up here making it terms of contract you have to buy seed from them to get malting barley contracts. £440/t.

Any other companies doing this?

Tell them to F off

 

[farmerm]

We paid £395 for 5 tons Laureate (cheapest quote) but that was probably booked in December (we grew all farm saved last year but germ on ours this year was only 80% hence it was feed)
It was delivered last week and we sold our last load of feed barley for £147/ton just into the new year. Last year I think the cost of cleaning, spd and royalty was around £160/ton. So all in all we probably could have saved just under £90 a ton by saving our own seed (not taking into account our own time with the seed dresser etc.)
Obviously at 5 tons that makes a £450 saving which is not to be sniffed at but there are extra costs with certified seed so I'd hardly describe seed at that price as daylight robbery. Plus the merchant has to make a margin and I don't begrudge them that.

depends which merchant if I begrudge them making a profit or not

 

[Chae1]

Tell them to F off

My contracts with said company were finished last year. Does stick in the throat a bit.

Be interesting to see if many farmers do meet these terms.

 

[yellow belly]

Malting barley will make as good a seed as certified seed
more that £200 a tonne cheaper

 

[thorpe]

we bought certified planet 5 years ago homesaved since no sign of smut do we need to test? never dressed it just run it over our cleaner. yield last year more than aceptable.

 

[Scouse eater]

Not a stupid question. The better the quality of grain you plant the better crop it should produce. The most noticeable difference between barley and seed barley is usually what happens to it after it has been combined. Grain for seed usually goes though a cleaning process to remove any weeds seeds which you certainly do not wish to be planting and other debris such as husks and straw which may have not be fully removed during combining and block up drill spouts. Once cleaned a seed dressing may be applied which gives the grain some protection from soil and seed born fungal diseases and in some cases some insects and insect born virus too. Crops grown specifically as seed crops have to be inspected and free from various weeds and fungal infections which may be tolerated in a crop that is not for seed. Sometimes we homesave grain and have it cleaned and dressed, we have some beans cleaned and bagged for seed this morning... sometimes we buy new seed to take advantage of the improvements brought about though new varieties that have been developed... either bought in or home saved we have to pay seed royalties to the plant breeders, this allows them to continue developing new varieties to replace older ones which all too soon become susceptible to new strains of fungal and viral plant diseases, its an arms race.

Thanks for your time and explaining the difference Farmerm! Much appreciated!

 

[Scouse eater]

the seed trade are scum were running out of firms we havnt had a claim against.

So basically Thorpe, the "seed" thing can be a bit of a "con" and finding a trustworthy supplier is quite difficult. I'm learning a lot here! Ta lots!

 

[Chae1]

we bought certified planet 5 years ago homesaved since no sign of smut do we need to test? never dressed it just run it over our cleaner. yield last year more than aceptable.

We have quite high levels of fusarium in batch we kept for seed 26%. So going to treat our diablo.

Laureate is fine and will just sow straight out of heap.

Was a lot of disease pressure with wet weather last year. Seed testing company said there seeing higher levels in most barley seed. A lot of spring oats no use at all for some reason.

 

[T Hectares]

Merchant up here making it terms of contract you have to buy seed from them to get malting barley contracts. £440/t.

Any other companies doing this?

Plenty try, I always Home save and sell for malting, never seen any “special” terms that would encourage me not too...