Hagen Brothers farms,Goodrich ND | We converted to no till back in 94 using JD 750 drills at 7.5 inch spacing with the in row starter and mid row fertilizer banding options. We like the one pass fertilizer and seeding deal,but were never satitisfied with the plant population. we fiddled with the seeding equipment for the last dozen years,without much gain,but always stayed with the accepted seeding rate for our area. The plant population always seemed low compared to our old conventional till crops. I noticed that the drill 0verlap strips which are double seeded and double fertilized never had any disease or lodging problems,in fact they always appeared to be the best part of the field.
This year I decided to get some more seed in the ground,to heck with the recommended rates,lets see what happens. I increased the field pea seeding rate 25%,from 3 to 4 bpa. I increased the spring wheat seeding rate 33%,from 2 bpa to 3,and increased flax seeding rate 75% from 1 bpa to 1.75. The result has been a great looking stand and yield increases proportional to the increase in seeding rate,this in spite of the fact that we have had only 5 inches of rain this year along with a month of temps of 90-100.
The field pea crop had less weed pressure and remained upright for easier harvest,and the wheat had a beautiful stand with great yield considering the lack if moisture. The flax has a great looking stand with seed bolls standing shoulder to shoulder thick. Flax harvest will not start until next week,but the ripe seeds I hand threshed are tiny from lack of water and I expect the yield to be poor. I certainly am going to use higher seeding rates again next year,and with normal rainfall I hope for good results.
PS, a late update. we finished the wheat late this afternoon and decided to try the flax. It was dry and when hilltops and lower areas are averaged the first 35 acre field had excellent yield,even for a good year when it actually rained more than 5 inches . :)
Edited by Jon Hagen 8/22/2006 23:46
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Wheat seed rate?
