Seeds of Oats, Barley, Wheat, and Rice

HARLAND STEVENS AND JOHN R. GOSS.

THE GOOD farming practices that are needed for a successful cereal crop are the same whether the crop is grown for feed or seed.

The seeds of small-grained cereals can be produced on nearly all soil types that are well drained and relatively productive.

All cereals yield more seed if they are planted in a well-prepared seedbed that has 2 or 3 inches of mellow surface soil. The surface should be slightly rough to guard against soil movement by water or wind. A good seedbed will help the young plants to emerge promptly and vigorously and compete with weeds. Oats make good growth with less preparation of soil than wheat, barley, and rice.

The first step in the successful production of cereal seed is careful selection of the seeds to be planted. Unadapted seed can be expensive to the farmer.

Carelessness in selecting seeds may mean that the oat field is full of wild oats, a field of winter wheat contains much rye, red rice comes up in a cultivated rice field, or noxious weeds abound in a planting of any of the small cereals.

The production of seeds of small cereals for farmers or seed producers in other areas is not a large enterprise. It is usually a specialty of occasional growers, who are the only ones who should grow a variety not adapted to their own sections. Most growers grow seed adapted to the area in which they are grown.

In some seasons of bad weather or sudden changes in crop acreages, sizable amounts of seed are moved into areas of short supply.

Spring wheat and barley survive in the mild winter climates of the Deep South and the Pacific coast, but plantings in the fall under more rigorous climatic conditions generally end in a poor crop or none.

The hardier winter wheats and barley, if spring planted, will not head or will produce low yields. The buyer must know the variety he buys and its adaptation.

A REGULAR seed producer should plant only adapted varieties, certified to be true to variety and free of noxious weeds and disease. Because the cost of producing seed is much more than the cost of producing cereal grains for feed or food, a grower of seed must plant the best seed he can get. If he grows a crop to maturity and it then fails to meet seed standards, he may realize only the actual cost of production.

Seed should always be treated with a fungicide to guard against smut and other seedborne diseases. Where loose smut is a problem in wheat or barley, only smut-free seed should be used unless the producer has access to equipment for adequate treatment with hot water.

The most reliable source of seed is the certified, registered, or foundation seed recommended and labeled by the experiment station or crop improvement association of the grower's area.

The income per acre from cereals grown for seed is considerably higher than that of those grown for grain and will more than compensate the grower for the extra labor and the higher cost of production.

CEREALS should follow a cultivated crop whenever possible, because that helps to control weeds. Cereals planted for seed should never be planted on land containing noxious weeds. Since it is impossible to clean a field contaminated with mixture of other cereals by roguing, such crop rotation as will leave the fields free of that type of volunteer is imperative.

Little cross-pollination occurs in cereal crops, and isolation is not necessary, but there must be an alleyway between two crops wide enough to enable harvesting without mixture.

In the eastern, southeastern, and Corn Belt areas, it is quite easy to grow any one of the spring cereals immediately following a cultivated row crop. Oats are commonly planted in the Corn Belt the season following a crop of corn.

In sections where winter barley and oats are raised, either may follow cotton. If the winter cereals are to follow a cover crop of lespedeza or other legumes, the field should be plowed at least a month before seeding time for the development of a firm seedbed. Disking or other shallow cultivation is needed to complete preparation of the seedbed.

In the drier parts of the Great Plains, to produce a seed crop of winter wheat without mixtures of volunteer small grains requires planting on land on which grass or a legume crop has been grown.

If spring cereals have to be planted following a summer fallow, a satisfactory crop usually can be produced by a spring cultivation late enough to destroy volunteer grain and weed seedlings before planting.

Wherever corn or sorghum are grown and harvested for ensilage, winter wheat can be seeded without danger of serious mixtures. Summer fallowing is usual every other year in the western sections and the drylands of the Great Plains.

Seed production of cereals usually follows a row crop in the Southwestern States. Two crops of the same species of cereal should not follow one another in the production of seed, except when a certified variety is grown on a field that was used the preceding year to produce certified, registered, or foundation seed of that same variety.

Successful yields have been had in many sections by planting in rows spaced far enough apart to allow cultivation. That practice may be used if unfavorable weather makes it necessary to plant a cereal crop on land that will be quite weedy.

A GOOD METHOD of weed control is through crop rotation and cultivation. If the land is known to contain quite a lot of seeds of any weeds as often happens following a noncultivated legume crop cultivation shortly before planting usually destroys enough of the germinated weed seeds to allow the grain to germinate and grow fast enough to control the situation.

It is good farming practice to control weeds in fence rows, turn rows, levees in irrigated fields, and other places where there is little or no plant competition. If an unavoidable condition lets a heavy stand of small weeds germinate and emerge at about the time the grain does, working the field with a rotary hoe or a spike-tooth harrow sometimes helps.

If cereals are planted without being used as a companion crop to legumes or grass, fields can be sprayed with 2,4-D or other chemical sprays for killing weeds. This should be done just before the crop is in the boot stage, which is just before the stems elongate and expose nodes. Because oats and rice are more susceptible to damage after the seed heads start to emerge from the boot, the time of application is extremely important.

If a field of cereals has many large weeds at maturity, spraying with 2,4-D will dry the weeds so that the crop can be combined and stored without damage from excessive moisture. Good farm practices are better than chemicals for the control of weeds.

The grower of cereals is familiar with the recommended rates, dates, and depths of seeding for his area and their modification for his use.

It is quite handy, however, to have a simple method of checking the rate of seeding of his drill: Put the drill in gear and drive a short distance on hard ground. Seeding rate for oats at one-fourth bushel per acre at spacings of 6, 7, or 8 inches will be 1.2, 1.4, and 1.6 kernels per foot, respectively. Wheat will be 2.0, 2.3, and 2.7 per foot. Barley will be 1.7, 2.0, and 2.3 per foot. For example, if 2 bushels of oats are considered a correct seeding rate in a 6-inch drill, there should be 7.2 kernels per foot, which would show a correct calibration.

When cereals are grown under irrigation, soil moisture should be sufficient at seeding time so that the growth will shade the ground by the time of the first irrigation.

SEEDING CEREALS with a grain drill is the most satisfactory method of planting for seed production. It assures a uniform seeding at the proper depth. It puts the seed in moist ground, assures uniform emergence of good stands, and gives the crop a good start in the competition with weeds.

The grower should have some equipment with which to clean a drillbox thoroughly between varieties of cereals planted for seed. A vacuum cleaner may be the easiest to use. Cleaning can be done by running the drill until the seedbox is practically empty and then, blowing out the last few kernels from each cup with compressed air. That can be done with a small hand bellows.

If it is suspected that the last crop seeded by a drill contained smut-infected seed, it may be advisable to wash the drill with a solution of a seed-disinfectant chemical.

The drill most commonly used in the United States is the single disk drill with row spacings of 6, 7, or 8 inches.

A hoe-type opener with spring release is sometimes used on rocky land in place of the disk opener. When seeding cereals for seed production with this type of drill, a good practice is to close one or two of the center drill cups in order to facilitate roguing of mixtures from the field.

A GOOD CROP rotation is necessary in all areas for maximum production of seed or grain.

Excellent yields of wheat for food and feed have been produced on well-fertilized land planted to a wheat crop for 3 years. The grower of seed, however, cannot plant wheat or other cereals more than I year in succession.

How much fertilizer to apply on cereal crops depends on the soil and the rotation system. The producer of cereal seeds is concerned with fertilizer, as it influences the total yield and viability. Barnyard manure or commercial fertilizers usually are more profitable when they are applied to a high-income crop in a rotation.

If the cropping system involves only cereals or one cereal and fallow, barnyard manure must be applied at least one season ahead of the planting for seed production so that weed or other cereal seeds can be destroyed before the seed crop is planted.

There is little evidence that the various forms of fertilizer show significant differences in yields. The farmer therefore should buy the form that is most economical and feasible for him to use. In many instances he can apply the fertilizer with a fertilizer attachment to his grain drill and thus save the cost of a separate operation.

As the total income anticipated per acre for seed is more than that of grain for other commercial purposes, slightly higher rates of fertilizer may sometimes be justified.

Cereal crops grown in areas of high rainfall or under irrigation can profitably utilize heavy applications of commercial fertilizer.