Curiousfarmer

Do you know how many seeds per square foot you are planting?  I didn’t, until I read an interesting article titled, “The Forage Seeding Gamble” by Fae Holin.

It’s interesting that my planned recipe for this year’s seeding, 10 lbs. alfalfa, 5 lbs. orchardgrass, and 2 lbs. Timothy, results in 50 alfalfa seeds per sq. foot, 55 orchardgrass seeds per sq. foot, and 58 timothy seeds per sq. foot, according to the author’s calculations.  Very similar number of seeds per sq. foot.

I’m surprised I had never figured this out before as the calculations are not that difficult.  First, you need to find the number of seeds per lb.  I found several sources on the web, all with different numbers.  I guess people get bored counting thousands of seed and just start to estimate.  Here is a nice chart with reasonable numbers.

To find the seed per sq. foot with 1 lb. per acre, just divide the number of seeds in a lb. by the number of sq. feet in an acre.  We’ll use alfalfa as an example.  Alfalfa has 227,000 seeds per. lb. on the previous chart.  We know there is 43,560 sq. feet in an acre.  So 227,000 divided by 43,560 equals roughly 5 seeds per sq. foot.  If we plant 10 lbs. per acre then just multiply 10 by the number of seeds per sq. foot with 1 lb. per acre and you have 50 seeds per sq. foot when planting 10 lbs. per acre.

Another calculation which I had never considered is seeds per dollar.  I’m not sure how useful this calculation is, but I find it interesting.

Here are my figures for this year.  K500 alfalfa, 227,000 seeds per lb., $2.58 dollars per lb., equals 87,984 seeds per dollar.  Climax timothy, 1,152,000 seeds per lb., $1.06 dollars per lb., equals 1,086,792 seeds per dollar.  Baraula orchardgrass, 416,000 seeds per lb., $2.44 dollars per lb., equals 170,492 seeds per dollar.  Seed seems less expensive now.

Now that I know how many seeds per sq. foot I’m planting, I wonder how many actually grow.  It would be interesting to get down on my hands and knees and do some counting this summer.  One thing always leads to another in an interested life!

Rejoice!  Baraula Orchardgrass seed is a steal this year compared to last year.

In my post, “2009 New Hay Seeding,” I detail how I planted a field to Baraula Orchardgrass and Alfalfa.  I didn’t plant any Baraula in 2009 because I was waiting to evaluate the quality and yield.  It was outstanding and I wrote about it in my post, “2009 Hay and Forage Summary.”

When I received the 2010 Welter seed catalog I immediately flipped to Baraula Orchardgrass and was happily surprised by the price of $122 for a 50 lb. bag.  Last year the price was $200.

I emailed Welter’s and asked why.  They said there is a much better supply this year.

The “law of supply and demand” works.  But it’s important to remember it may be supply and/or demand affecting the price.  I assumed the demand for Baraula must have been through the roof.  Looking back now I see all the Orchardgrasses were higher priced.  The seed companies must have had a poor yielding year.  So the price was affected more by supply than demand.

I realize I need to do what’s right for my farm.  I’m glad I tried some other species of grass last year as I look forward to evaluating them.

As for this year’s new seeding I’m going to plant all 59 acres to K500 Alfalfa, Climax Timothy, and Baraula Orchardgrass.