Cereal, Oil and Grain Legume Seed Production

Thomas G Chastain

CSS 460/560 Seed Production

Cereals • Several small grain cereal seed crops are

grown in the Pacific Northwest including wheat, barley, oats, triticale, and rye.

• Many small grain cereal grain growers save grain rather than using professionally grown seed for planting and acreages are not tracked.

• Planting certified seed guarantees:

1. high seed purity

2. high germination

3. no prohibited noxious weed seed

4. low amounts of weeds or other crop seeds

5. known cultivar (for high grain yield, baking quality, etc.).

Wheat seed field near La Grande

Cereals • Seed - must use the correct seed for

the intended generation.

• Seedbed - The seedbed must be free from weeds and meet land history requirements for cereals. Seedbeds need not be fine and firm.

• Crop residues in the seedbed are only a problem in dryland plantings. High residue levels may reduce stand establishment. Irrigated cereal seed crops are becoming more common. Large seed size is desirable and is more likely in irrigated production.

Barley seed field (top), wheat seed (left), barley seed (right)

Cereals • Plant populations - Planting rates and

row spacings are similar to those used for grain production.

• Seeding rate affects tillering in small grain cereals. Optimum seeding rate for wheat is 18-22 seeds ft2. Cultivars with low tillering capacity may require greater seeding rates.

• Low seeding rate causes increased number of tillers/plant, numbers of seeds/spike, seed size, and percent cleanout.

• High seeding rate reduces number of tillers/plant, numbers of seeds/spikes, seed size, and percent cleanout.

• Must be sown in rows. Direct-seeding wheat

(top), double-disc drill

openers (bottom)

Cereals • Fertilizer Management - Nitrogen is

the most important element in cereal seed production. Nitrogen promotes tillering and increases the protein content of the seed.

• Nitrogen applications above the optimum rate do not increase seed yield, these applications only increase the protein content of the seed.

Club wheat: no N (above), 80 lbs./acre N (below)

Cereals • Diseases - These include barley yellow

dwarf virus, dwarf bunt, ergot, root rots (Fusarium and strawbreaker), and rust. These diseases can be controlled by seed treatment fungicides, foliar fungicides, and crop rotation.

• Insects - These include wireworms and aphids.

Wheat spike showing

dwarf bunt (top right),

greenbug – an aphid on

wheat (bottom right – Ken

Gray photo), Fusarium

root rot (left),

Cereals • Weeds - These include rye, downy

brome, jointed goatgrass, wild oats, and others. These can be controlled with herbicides and crop rotation.

Jointed goatgrass (top left), downy brome (bottom left), wild oats (right)

Cereals • Seed quality. Wheat seed threshed

with an axial flow rotary combine had less damage than when threshed with a conventional combine. Damaged seed produced lower wheat crop emergence and grain yield.

• Cereal seed crops are direct combined at 12% seed moisture content. Wheat seed vigor can be affected by combine cylinder speed. At 450 rpm, seed vigor was high but threshing of the seed was incomplete. At 850 rpm, seed vigor was moderate and the most good quality seed came out of this fraction. At 1250 rpm, seed vigor was reduced because of cracking.

Cereals • Seed quality. Planting quality

of wheat seed may be reduced by pre-harvest sprouting.

• Depending on the degree of sprouting severity, stand establishment and grain yield may be reduced when fields are sown with sprouted seed.

Seed type

Sprouting

Severity

Spike

Density

Grain

Yield

No. m-2 Kg ha-1

Normal 489 c 6363 b

Sprouted A 509 c 6322 b

B 515 c 6775 b

C 408 b 6539 b

D 230 a 4362 a

Effect of wheat seed sprouting severity on spike

density and grain yield (Chastain et al.,1994)

A B C D

Sprouting severity

Poor wheat stand caused

by sprouted seed

Cereals • Seed quality. Some seed

companies screen wheat and barley seed and market the large seed separately.

• This large seed produces better stands than smaller seed from the same harvested crop. Large seed produced greater tiller production and grain yield than small seed.

Seed size effects on winter barley stand

establishment (Chastain et al., 1995)

Emerging seedlings showing

coleoptiles (left)

Food Legumes • Several food legume crops are

grown for seed in the Pacific Northwest. These include peas, lentil, chickpeas, beans, and lupin.

• Typically, the acreage of food legumes produced for seed crops are small in the region, and these are primarily located in Washington and Idaho. Peas, lentils, and chickpeas are grown for seed in the Palouse region of eastern Washington and northern Idaho. Beans are grown for seed in the central basin of Washington and southern Idaho. White lupin in flower (top), pea and

bean seed (bottom)

Food Legumes • Seed production of food legumes

unlike forage legumes does not require specialized production practices. Practices for grain production of these crops are used for seed production.

• Weed and disease control are more intensive in a food legume seed field.

Young chickpea stand (top), pea

field in Palouse hills (bottom)

Oil Seed Crops • Several oil seed crops are grown for

the purposes of seed production in the Pacific Northwest.

• These include canola, mustard, sunflower, safflower, camelina and flax. Like the cereal and food legume seed crops, these is no tracking of the acreages of oil seed crops for seed production.

Sunflower crop

Safflower

• Canola. Time of planting is important as later plantings give poorer seed yields.

y = -0.0167x2 + 24.15x - 5850.1 R² = 0.8654

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

400 500 600 700 800 900

Seed Y

ield

(lb

s/a

cre

)

GDD from planting until December 1

Time of planting effects on canola seedlings (above),

relationship of canola seed yield to planting time(right).

Oil Seed Crops

• Canola. Seed production is responsive to nitrogen fertilizer in the spring, more so in wet years than in dry years.

• Major diseases of canola include sclerotinia stem rot and black leg while the cabbage seedpod weevil is an important insect pest of canola.

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

0 50 100 150

Spring N (lbs/acre)

Seed Y

ield

(lb

s/acre

)

Wet

Dry

Cabbage seed pod weevil (Ken

Gray photo-right), relationship of

canola seed yield to spring N

fertilizer(top).

Oil Seed Crops

Seed yield (lbs/acre) of non-GMO winter canola

cultivars*

Cultivar 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Athena 4491 2663 2762 3102 2317 2395

Baldur† 4650 2383 3173 3001 2498 2444

Ceres 3872 2416 -- -- -- --

Kronos† 4331 2789 2471 2640 2259 2490

Virginia -- -- 2988 3090 2420 2750

† Hybrid cultivar

• Canola was developed by conventional breeding methods, but some newer cultivars have been bred for herbicide resistance (GMO). Non-GMO cultivars have yields that are equivalent or better than GMOs

Winter canola cultivar

evaluation trials at

Hyslop Farm

Oil Seed Crops

• Flax (Linum usitatissimum) is an oil-seed crop in the flax family. Oil concentrations in the seed range from 30 to 45%. Flax seed is the source of linseed oil and used in paints, stains, and linoleum flooring. Spring flax yields range from 600 to 1500 lbs/acre, winter flax yields up to 2000 lbs/acre.

• Mustard (Brassica hirta, B. juncea and Sinapsis alba) are oil seed crops in the mustard family. Oil concentration in the seed is 27%. A powerfully-flavored cooking oil that has good levels of omega-3 fatty acids. Also used in production of condiment mustard and as a spice. Seed yield ranges from 1,500 to 2000 lbs./acre.

Oil Seed Crops

Flax flowers (Garbacik photo-above), yellow

mustard (Sinapsis alba) (bottom)

• Camelina. Originating in Europe, Camelina sativa is a spring annual oil seed crop in the mustard family. Seed is very small, about 1/3 the size of canola. Oil concentration in the seed is 40%.

• Nutrition. High in omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants, will be an increasingly important food oil. Has potential as aviation fuel feedstock.

• Production. Seed yields range from 1000 to 1800 lbs./acre in the Willamette Valley. Production of camelina is now underway in several western states including Montana and Oregon.

Camelina pods

(top) and seed

(left).

Oil Seed Crops

• Production. Has peculiar response to date of planting – best seed yields are from planting in mid-winter, even on snow!

Camelina seed yield response to

planting date in the Willamette Valley

(top), downy mildew disease on

camelina (left).

0

400

800

1200

1600

2000

-150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150Se

ed

Yie

ld (

lbs/

acre

) Day of Year

2007-08

2008-09

2009-10

Oil Seed Crops