wheat ear counts

[4course]

interesting ear counts on our wheat seed crops all more or less treated the same and all sown on similar soil type but historically the better crops have come from the kerrin and skyscraper fields with the poorer crops from the gravity field
lili 5.26 million/ha1st wheat
kerrin 5.61m/ha 2nd wheat
skyscraper5.861st wheat
gravity 6.77 1st wheat
They were sown in that orderi.e lili first end sept gravity last mid october
All year the kerrin and skyscraper have looked the best with the gravity until this last month looking the poor relation and now its come on in leaps and bounds
Ear size the skyscraper has the most grains by far followed by kerrin and gravity the same with lili a tad lower although all are above our average with the skyscraper main stem ear like donkeys do dahs.
on the barley front orwell 8.79 is in front of tower 8.61 in terms of ears and number of grain sites but not by much both in a split field

 

[chipchap]

All a bit academic.
The quantity in the pile is what counts, but also the grain quality.
Different varieties have different growth habits.

 

[4course]

academic it may be, but its interesting that the gravity has ended up with more heads than the others particularly as it was the last sown on not the best land, time will tell wether weve initially sown the different varieties too thick or too thin and when we get the yield and tgw bushel we will have more info to use hopefully to our advantage, its all a learning curve to ensure the pile is as big and as heavy as it can be.

 

[PSQ]

527 to 677 ears/m2, sounds about either side of optimum.

Not done a count yet, but last year in the drought it ranged 330 to 780, and up to 830 on the endrig overlaps. Looking a lot more uniform this year.

 

[teslacoils]

Split field trial. Gleam and Lili. Pics show ears, then three leaves from flag down. Robust, four fungicide (2 sdhi) program. Next to no rain except for that 110mm in a week.

 

[shakerator]

Split field trial. Gleam and Lili. Pics show ears, then three leaves from flag down. Robust, four fungicide (2 sdhi) program. Next to no rain except for that 110mm in a week.

Drilling date?

 

[teslacoils]

Would be between 10 and 14 October.

 

[Gong Farmer]

Wheat is quite 'plastic' so as long as it has around 500 ears/m2 it can make any other changes necessary in other yield components.

 

[fudge]

Split field trial. Gleam and Lili. Pics show ears, then three leaves from flag down. Robust, four fungicide (2 sdhi) program. Next to no rain except for that 110mm in a week.

Which one is which?

 

[teslacoils]

Gleam on the left.

 

[Lincsman]

I was once told the difference in yield nearly always came down to the grains at the top of the ear, wether there or not and size.

You can get loads of ears by trebling seed rate, yield will be similar though.

 

[4course]

now been round rubbing grains out/ ear on the first mentioned varieties a non scientific assessment but good enough for me, to come to the view that in order of grains/ ear skyscraper is the highest lili the lowest and gravity and kerrin similar, a note that skyscraper had the individual ear with the most grains. all grains are at a similar doughy stage so would reckon most will make it to harvest and only the odd shrivelled grain apparent , even the top ones are ok.now got the result from some barrel and shows an ear number similar to kerrin . Over the years ive tried most things be they fads fashion or evidence based research to try and increase yield and have come to the view that ear size in conjunction with ear numbers and tgw are where I should be looking to see if I can influence more