Finland, up there in north where noboby farms! | Nick, Ham and Don... What we do is very different. I have visited your neighborhood Don and it ain't like here. I can Image Australia is little different too.
The point is: Short growing season and you wanna have have lot of heads / square meter, because it makes crop mature fast ( Canucs have studiet this and every farmer here knows this too and it is big thing to us). I wanna see 427-460 ( being Ford man) heads / square meter. This will also limit secondary tillers what is supposed cut down small seeds ( just like you said Ham) and they also say that barley will have higher protein on secondary tillers = bad for malt. ( it is impossible grow malt barley if they don't need it it so what limits malt quality is need not crop quality.....what BS it is sometimes ).
Then: Row spacing here is something that people say has always been 5" and you can not chance it. It is said that is holy number and you don't mess whit that. Not correct....We have seeded whit 7-8" inch no-till drills and never seen any yield losses. Got friend who seeds whit Seed Hawk, 10", no yeild losses.
Seed rate: We get avrage 1,2 tillers / seed and you folks get 4-6, right. Our seed rate for s-wheat 300 kg/ha, barley ( good size seed) also 300 kg/ha and oats 200 kg/ha, but canola will do just fine whit 3-5 kg/ha. Kg/ha will about same that lbs/ac. I have tried 30% lover seed rate ( DON'T ask how) and I ain't gonna do it again, ever. Crop takes long time to mature and yield was low too.
Talking about the seed drill. Because of those seed rates (dry fert) we got some materials traveling from trough feeder to the pipes and openers. Imported ( specially air drills) ain't working too well and this is reason why we have big seed boxes on our drills. On cost side you are carefully using certified seed. You by some and grow your own seed for next year if you wanna get some new variety or you wanna update your seed. Don't even wanna think about GMO crops.............
Edited by Traveling Man 8/21/2010 09:41
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row spacings for wheat. Response to grass farmer
