State of your crops?

[Scouse eater]

Around here, they say “Never does the month of May pass by without an ear of wheat somewhere on the farm.”
But by the 11th May? You are doing well!

Doing well? Only by accident or because it's in my greenhouse!

 

[T Hectares]

Just had to look up what BSPB was.
Bloody hell! Does that mean farmers have to BUY their seeds every year and aren't allowed to save some of what they've grown, or have I misunderstood?

No, we can save our own but have to pay intellectual rights to the breeder, which is fine by me
It’s grey areas like selling a handful to you or using some to plant as a green manure but not take to harvest is where it all gets a bit murky !!

 

[Two Tone]

Doing well? Only by accident or because it's in my greenhouse!

Both!
You are also a dark horse insofar as there aren’t many posters that can claim a reaction score of nearly 8-1 on here!

 

[Scouse eater]

No, we can save our own but have to pay intellectual rights to the breeder, which is fine by me
It’s grey areas like selling a handful to you or using some to plant as a green manure but not take to harvest is where it all gets a bit murky !!

So you have to pay "royalties" on seeds, a bit like copyright on songs on the radio? I'm amazed! Surely seeds are just "nature" and haven't been "made"(except GMO ones) ?

 

[Scouse eater]

Both!
You are also a dark horse insofar as there aren’t many posters that can claim a reaction score of nearly 8-1 on here!

Scouser with a garden! Novelty value probably!

 

[T Hectares]

So you have to pay "royalties" on seeds, a bit like copyright on songs on the radio? I'm amazed! Surely seeds are just "nature" and haven't been "made"(except GMO ones) ?

No, the varieties have all been bred commercially at considerable expense
It’s right to pay a royalty to the breeder, what we couldn’t do is sell seed to you unless we were seed producers and had the crop inspected to ensure purity and quality

 

[le bon paysan]

In France it's slightly different, we pay the royalties up front so can plant again and again. Seed here is a thousand euros or more a tonne . Just buy enough for the future/ change of variety.

 

[Lincsman]

No, the varieties have all been bred commercially at considerable expense
It’s right to pay a royalty to the breeder, what we couldn’t do is sell seed to you unless we were seed producers and had the crop inspected to ensure purity and quality

It ought to be right to have a refund when they mess up the breeding and cause crop failures.... Moulin.

 

[T Hectares]

It ought to be right to have a refund when they mess up the breeding and cause crop failures.... Moulin.

Moulin was a bit before my time, 1987/8 maybe??
Was there any comeback with it or did growers have to take it on the chin ??

 

[Brisel]

@Hindsight ?

 

[teslacoils]

Graham T1.

 

[Scouse eater]

No, the varieties have all been bred commercially at considerable expense
It’s right to pay a royalty to the breeder, what we couldn’t do is sell seed to you unless we were seed producers and had the crop inspected to ensure purity and quality

Thanks for explaining that T Hectares.
I suppose us eaters are quite naive and haven't really got a clue about real farming and how many hoops you've got to jump through to put food on our tables!
So i assume the "seed breeders" must also be farmers as they'd have to grow acres of their 'new variety' to have enough to bag up and sell on to other farmers. And I suppose you'd have to take their word for it, that it will grow/yield as they've said, and hasn't been GMO'd etc.

 

[Lincsman]

Moulin was a bit before my time, 1987/8 maybe??
Was there any comeback with it or did growers have to take it on the chin ??

Some farmers got a little but not "officially", most got nothing, mine had spring wheat volunteers in it and did 3t/ac, over the hedge on first wheats it was 100kg. ac... most was silaged where there was a market.

 

[Lincsman]

Thanks for explaining that T Hectares.
I suppose us eaters are quite naive and haven't really got a clue about real farming and how many hoops you've got to jump through to put food on our tables!
So i assume the "seed breeders" must also be farmers as they'd have to grow acres of their 'new variety' to have enough to bag up and sell on to other farmers. And I suppose you'd have to take their word for it, that it will grow/yield as they've said, and hasn't been GMO'd etc.

There is a "recommended list" that is independently verified by growing small plots of a new variety all over the country when a new one is bred, if it is better than whats already available it makes the list and Farmers then choose whether to try it or not.
About 2 new wheats make it every year, and some get demoted after a few years but others may run for up to 15 years, but if a farm really suits it a farmer can keep growing it forever in theory.

 

[teslacoils]

@Scouse eater - you might find it interesting to get hold of a small sample of "heritage" wheat seeds, and the same of a modern commercial variety. Plant them aside in pots, and see the difference.

 

[Scouse eater]

There is a "recommended list" that is independently verified by growing small plots of a new variety all over the country when a new one is bred, if it is better than whats already available it makes the list and Farmers then choose whether to try it or not.
About 2 new wheats make it every year, and some get demoted after a few years but others may run for up to 15 years, but if a farm really suits it a farmer can keep growing it forever in theory.

That makes sense. Thanks Lincsman

 

[Scouse eater]

@Scouse eater - you might find it interesting to get hold of a small sample of "heritage" wheat seeds, and the same of a modern commercial variety. Plant them aside in pots, and see the difference.

Think i've already been able to compare this Tesla coils. I first did the "corn dolly" plantings in 2000. The wheat , barley and oats I grew then wern't very tall (about 1ft?) and I reckoned at the time, that it was cos I grew them in pots. There were over 40 seeds in each wheat head. We bought a big bag (20kg?) of organic wheat and a grain mill to make our own bread in 2007, which we did. I planted some of the seeds in a raised bed the following spring 2008 and that was when we "grew a loaf". The stalks were much taller than previous and there were about 36 seeds in each wheat head. We bought an other bag of organic wheat (winter wheat) and grinder in 2014 and made bread again. Planted some seeds in a pot in Sept 2015 and grew that and it grew quite tall about 3'. So I reckon maybe the organic wheats have more straw and less seeds and the modern commercial varieties have less straw but more seeds and so a higher yield?
I'm learning so much here, it's great! Many thanks!

 

[teslacoils]

Think i've already been able to compare this Tesla coils. I first did the "corn dolly" plantings in 2000. The wheat , barley and oats I grew then wern't very tall (about 1ft?) and I reckoned at the time, that it was cos I grew them in pots. There were over 40 seeds in each wheat head. We bought a big bag (20kg?) of organic wheat and a grain mill to make our own bread in 2007, which we did. I planted some of the seeds in a raised bed the following spring 2008 and that was when we "grew a loaf". The stalks were much taller than previous and there were about 36 seeds in each wheat head. We bought an other bag of organic wheat (winter wheat) and grinder in 2014 and made bread again. Planted some seeds in a pot in Sept 2015 and grew that and it grew quite tall about 3'. So I reckon maybe the organic wheats have more straw and less seeds and the modern commercial varieties have less straw but more seeds and so a higher yield?
I'm learning so much here, it's great! Many thanks!

Potentially. If I have a look, I've got some square heads master and little Joss seed - so think ww1!

 

[sahara]

3rd Nitrogen dose going on today on the Grafton.

We have had about 60mm of rain in the last 2 weeks, over the last weekend everything has changed and moved on.

This year the crops have some real potential, so we are in go for it mode!

 

[chaffcutter]

Going back to he earlier question, we had some Moulin wheat, but thankfully we weren’t growing many acres back then. It was a total write-off. Nobody ever got compensation for the disaster as far as I know, ought to have done. It might be that ourswould not have been a big enough claim to bother, I can just imagine my old man saying it’s not worth it (he hated, and never did, any sort of office work, Mum did all of it until I took it over.)