What’s In A Seed?
So the ground in Michigan is way too cold to start planting yet. But that isn’t the first step in growing corn. If you want to grow corn, you’re going to need seeds.
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| Seed bag – 80,000 seeds! |
There is a lot more to picking out the right seed than just picking some up at the store.
The first you need to do is figure out which traits you want in your corn.
Maturity range is a pretty big deal. Each geographic area is unique in that there are only so many “heat units” or “growing degree days” in the year. Field corn has maturity ranges from 75 day to corn to 120 day corn. The number reflects how many days it will take from sprouting to dry down (yeah, we’ll get to what that means later in the season!). The longer the corn has to grow, the higher the yield. However, if your corn has too high of a maturity range, it may not fully mature before it freezes. The trick is picking the right range for your specific area.
Next, you might decide if you want a traditional, non-GMO corn. Or, you can plant one that is rootworm resistant, corn bore resistant, or herbicide resistant. It all depends on the specific problems you face on your particular farm.
There are also hybrids that do better on different types of soil. Certain hybrids do better on dry soils, while others do better on heavier ground like clay. Again, it all depends on the particular needs of a particular field. Keep in mind, if you have farms in different areas, you might have different soil and different challenges.
Then, depending on the type of planter you have (we’ll talk about planters another week!), you may want large round, small round, small flat, medium flat, or large flat seed. Whatever will work best with the type of planter you have.
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| A pallet of seed has about 66 bags |
Let’s not forget about the price of the seed. Obviously, the more features in the seed, the more expensive it is. A bag of non-GMO seed might be as low as $120 a bag, while a GMO stacked trait seed could run as high as $350 a bag.
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| Probably want to wash your hands after handling the seed! |
One bag of seed contains 80,000 seeds. A bag will plant approximately 2.5 acres, depending on the population you plant the field. The population of the seed is the amount of seeds planted in one acre of land. The average is anywhere from 28,000 to 34,000 on non-irrigated fields (yep, it also depends on if you can irrigate your crops).
We actually start ordering seed in the fall prior to the planting season, sometimes even before harvest of the previous year. We get catalog from various companies and pick the varieties, based on the above considerations, that best suit our land. The seed usually arrives in January or February.
It comes in bags containing 80,000 seeds per bag. The bags are stacked on pallets, with about 66 bags on each pallet.
The actual seed usually is coated with a seed treatment (the blue stuff in the picture) that will protect the seed from being eaten by insects and fungicide from bacteria destroying it.
So, now you know a little bit about what goes into picking out the right seed for the right field in the right geographic area for the right….
You get the point!
