Wheat School: Achieving a successful seeding rate

Proper seeding rate can determine the success of an entire season, and the effects of too low a seeding rate can compound.

In this episode of the Wheat School, Kara Oosterhuis is joined by Sheri Strydhorst, agronomy research specialist with Alberta Wheat and Barley Commission, who will walk through the steps to calculating the correct seeding rate.

#WheatSchool #SeedingRate #Farming #Agriculture

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[beebe]

I've been doing a lot of study on seeding rates and I find that the best growers seem to use quite a low seeding yet some great growers stress the importance of a high seeding rate. Record yield was achieved with just 500, 000 seeds per acre. That is only 1/3 of what many growers do. I think the key is the number of tillers. If you can get your tillers per plant up then you need less total seed to achieve the perfect number of total tillers. The record yield grower was talking about 6-7+ tillers per plant. I am convinced that the best yields can be achieved with the highest number of tillers per plant and balancing that out by a lower seeding rate. If you don't get good stooling then you have to plant more seed to get that optimum number of tillers. So the question is how to maximize the stooling? I don't have all the answers to that but I believe it comes from cool weather early, consistent good moisture early, and a high level of balanced soil nutrition early. Planting date can affect that somewhat and the ability to irrigate as well. As you get better at promoting stooling through the variables that you can control you should be able to cut back on your seeding rate and achieve higher yields.