Spring barley seed rates

[wasted years]

I only ever sow spring barley at 1.25cwt/acre, which i calculate at 62.5k/acre or 156kg/ha. some of the rates mentioned here, seem way too much to me

I make 1 ton do 13 acres. hopefully that works out at 12 stone to the acre.
If it doesn't them I'm a bigger dick than I thought.

 

[7800]

Was always told barley is the opposite to wheat with regards seed rate..but i will take your point

Been told this as well but does it relate to winter barley & not spring?

 

[jh.]

When I was young, keen and fresh out of college and reading the FW 20 years ago I used to sow by TGW. Spring barley was 375-400 seeds m2 depending on variety.

Now I just sow at 200kg/ha and it does just as well without hassle of ordering it by TGW or having too much left over. Only note of TGW I take now is how it compares to last year to set the drill the same, up a notch or down a notch from setting in my notebook!

At 200kg/ha the weather generally decides if it's a high or low yielding year. Likewise screenings. 2002 is the only year I can remember having high screenings.

Got 2 batches of seed this year one down at 39.1 so imo tgw needs to be considered. I'll be calibrating it at 156kh/h

 

[Happy]

Got 2 batches of seed this year one down at 39.1 so imo tgw needs to be considered. I'll be calibrating it at 156kh/h

Funny you should say that. Just looked at mine today tgw 54. Last years was 53 so will set the scale on drill for 68 rather than 67

39 is really low so agree you want to be cutting rates back. Been lucky in recent years been either 53, 54 or 55 tgw.

 

[willy]

Been told this as well but does it relate to winter barley & not spring?

I don't know, but would like to know @ollie989898

 

[Hornet]

Got 2 batches of seed one at 43 tgw and another at 51, its being suggested that I use the same seed rate for both!? 380 seeds/m2 of the 43tgw would then become 320 seeds/m2 for the 51tgw, which I would suggest could be a suboptimal seed rate

 

[yellow belly]

my seed batches are 49 and 52 the seed merchant would not quote on a price per million seeds like they do for osr

not for the future must always grow a bit of each crop every year for home saved seed
360 per tonne for dressed seed compared to 120 for feed grain plus royalty just take it from a clean field

 

[Hornet]

my seed batches are 49 and 52 the seed merchant would not quote on a price per million seeds like they do for osr

not for the future must always grow a bit of each crop every year for home saved seed
360 per tonne for dressed seed compared to 120 for feed grain plus royalty just take it from a clean field

You can still sample and cheaply test the tgw, bought or home saved

 

[JCfarmer]

Have got our Propino test results back. 84% germination, 47 TGW and aiming for 300 plants / sq m established gives a seed rate of about 226 kg/ha assuming about 25% field losses.

Did most of your Propino make malting Feldspar? Germination at 84% seems low, I know it can drop the longer you keep it.

 

[Chae1]

You can still sample and cheaply test the tgw, bought or home saved

How do you test it? I always envisaged some unfortunate person having to count 1000 grains.

 

[Feldspar]

Did most of your Propino make malting Feldspar? Germination at 84% seems low, I know it can drop the longer you keep it.

I think my sampling method was the problem. I rather stupidly just grabbed some seed literally off the front of the heap without using a spear. I think what I sent off in the bag might have been pretty unrepresentative of the the front of the heap. I think the samples from the whole heap showed much better germination, which would back up that idea.

In the end we've decided to use Propino from another farm with really good germination figures.

 

[Happy]

Did most of your Propino make malting Feldspar? Germination at 84% seems low, I know it can drop the longer you keep it.

Certified seed only needs to be 85% germination so might not be much worse than a lot of seed that gets sown.

 

[Flat 10]

How do you test it? I always envisaged some unfortunate person having to count 1000 grains.

That's how I do it.

 

[Feldspar]

That's how I do it.

Someone told me that you can buy a gadget with 1000 imprints in. Pour seed on the imprinted surface. Then move a slide across which brushes all the excess seed off so that there is only one grain per imprint. Simple yet effective, but I could not find this gadget when I looked a while ago.

 

[SilliamWhale]

Culverthorpe grain tester about £30. Google it

 

[Feldspar]

Culverthorpe grain tester about £30. Google it

Thanks!

 

[SilliamWhale]

Thanks!

I still just sow 75kg acre whatever

 

[Feldspar]

I still just sow 75kg acre whatever

The buggers only want £10 to deliver it. It's only a bit of plastic. Are they going to hand deliver it in nice gift wrapping paper?!

 

[bobk]

The buggers only want £10 to deliver it. It's only a bit of plastic. Are they going to hand deliver it in nice gift wrapping paper?!

Weigh 100 and x10 .

 

[Feldspar]

Weigh 100 and x10 .

It's T=1000 in TGW rather than TGW=100 for a reason. The extra time in reducing your sampling error by 1/(10^2) is worth it / buying a seed counting thing.