Will there be a shortage of barley seed?

[cormywormy]

From talking to a few farmers today there saying barley seed will be short since last years harvest was not great and most people will go sow barley due to the bad weather wheat might not get to be sown.

 

[John 1594]

Paid £600 a tonne for ours yesterday, delivered beginning of march, dont think we are going to need it before then, i did well to get 25 acre of w/w in on friday/saturday, weather here been evil ever since

 

[cormywormy]

Yeh the thing is i see over hear, wheat that went in , in ideal conditions struggled to grow. So how will it fare out in wet weather and cold soil conditions that are there now. My friend did establishment test on wheat and one field only 30% of the seed germinated.

 

[Great In Grass]

My two suppliers have sold out, one bought in 50 tonnes last week but now all gone. Late last year was hoping for better weather to see some winter cereals drilled therefore some cancelled spring cereal orders, looking more & more unlikely.

 

[cormywormy]

Its true it getting late and conditions are not improving at any decent rate. I seen lads ploughing and sowing in the snow, how can the seed germinate any way decent in them cold conditons. Thats for another thread though.

 

[John 1594]

the w/w seed we had was awful quality considering it was certified C2, was all tail grains, i set the drill by the book to do 16st/acre, done my calibration test and this stuff was going through it at 11st! Finished up with the drill opened up to the max and i was only managing 15st/acre then. It wasnt going to do much good in the bag though, you dont make a profit off a bare field. If it comes up and fails to vernalise least il have a nice crop of straw to sell lol

 

[cormywormy]

I seen that with spring wheat seed alright, the grains where very shrivelled up and small, some of them could never germinate. Some where saying its from fusarium and plain no sun to fill the grain. Your stuff must have been flowing too well so or alot of crap in the bag aswel. A farmer near me said that one day to me, he had seed that was 3 year old. Few lads to him it wouldnt graw as had no vigour , he said better in the field than in the bag, so there where sent ploughing and sowing..........It didnt grow in the end....was resown twice. Then beet but in the middle of the field

 

[John 1594]

id got half a tonne of spring barley lay in the back of the shed from two years ago, was kept back for animal feed but didnt all get used. Thought it may come in handy this year, so did my germ test, 100 grains in a compost filled roses tin lid. 1 week later i had 5 shoots out of a 100 Just as well i didnt drill it!

The bushel weight of that wheat was terrible, i had a standard black bucket filled to the brim and it weighed just 12lb, no wonder the book settings werent matching the calibration

 

[cormywormy]

The bushel weights where a disaster, i seen an artic load of oats at the loacl mill and it just busheld 45 kph. The driver was polish and couldnt understand why they wouldnt let him tip it anywhere in their yard. Trailers that should have weighted 20 ton coming in at 15-16.

5 shoots out of 100 that would have been one very bare field. Lucky you did a germ test, my project for college is on the establishment and winter kill of six row , two row and hybrid six row barley. I may rob your idea of the roses tin, wont bother with any fancy lab work to do the germ tests

 

[John 1594]

Its suprsing what age and climate can do to seed, that barley passed for malting with 100% germ when it was harvested, 2 years in a bag in a dry but cold shed killed it, was no rodent damage in there either suprisingly

Ive had 12-13 tonnes on our main trailer in a good year, this year it was all 9s, 10s and maybe an 11 if i filled the corners, not good.

 

[Bob]

I have just paid £465 for Waggon SB Frontier,

 

[Barry]

You should be able to get a variety that is either on the Recommended Lists or has been tested over here. Certainly, imported Quench is still available and maybe some Propino.

 

[Refco]

Got some Rhyncostar for £510/t spd Agrii

 

[ridger]

Can get undressed westminster seed would it need dressed or be ok

 

[Brisel]

Undressed seed should be fine if seedbed conditions are good & there is no seed borne disease. Get it tested. NIAB or SAC do seed testing, plus lots of other smaller companies. Ask your agronomist who does it in NI.

Seed dressing is just insurance against seed disease & slow establishment & the seed cleaning can get weed seeds out.

 

[Fuzzy]

I was offered spring wheat at £750 or Spring Barley Quench @ £480 now let me think .......

 

[Brisel]

That's a good price for Quench. Propino was being offered at higher values than that recently. I managed to farm save some, test, dress & bag it inc royalty for £295/t allowing for lost malting income. That's nearly half price. It does cost a lot to import which I think is where a lot of merchants are now, including Barry.

 

[nick...]

ive got 1 1/2 tons on order back from last november when it was cleear id not get anymore wheat in.land is still in the same water logged rutted state so i think the barley will get cancelled and ill wait till it dries out and cutivate and subsoil and put some mustard in till sept then back to cereals again
nick.............

 

[Great In Grass]

I was offered spring wheat at £750 or Spring Barley Quench @ £480 now let me think .......

Great price on the Quench, is it dressed?

 

[farming4profit]

From talking to a few farmers today there saying barley seed will be short since last years harvest was not great and most people will go sow barley due to the bad weather wheat might not get to be sown.

Last Spring followed a dry autumn, so there was limited break land left to drill spring crops. We then had a crap season and seed crops were lost through poor yield and failed germination. To add to the shortfall a lot of the seed not drilled spring 12 was sold to Germany and France who had a shortage there. We now have a massive area of spring land to drill. So really it's no surprise that there is a shortage. Just one region - the Vale of York, is only 35% drilled to date. Add all the other areas in England suffering water logging and top up with Scotland who has sufferred two seasons on the trot with appalling weather.