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.

Effect of wheat seed sprouting severity on spike density and grain yield (Chastain et al.,1994)

Seed type

Sprouting Severity

Spike Density

Grain Yield

No. m-2

Kg ha-1

489 c

6363 b

A

509 c

6322 b

B

515 c

6775 b

C

408 b

6539 b

D

230 a

4362 a

Normal Sprouted

A

B

C

Sprouting severity

D

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.

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

3500 3000

Seed Yield (lbs/acre)

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

2500 2000

1500 1000 y = -0.0167x2 + 24.15x - 5850.1 R² = 0.8654

500 0 400

500

600

700

800

900

GDD from planting until December 1

Time of planting effects on canola seedlings (above), relationship of canola seed yield to planting time(right).

Seed Yield (lbs/acre)

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.

4000 3000 2000 Wet

1000

Dry 0 0

50

100

Spring N (lbs/acre) Cabbage seed pod weevil (Ken Gray photo-right), relationship of canola seed yield to spring N fertilizer(top).

150

Oil Seed Crops • 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 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

--

--

--

Kronos† 4331 2789 2471

2640

2259

2490

Virginia

3090

2420

2750

Ceres

3872 2416 --

† Hybrid cultivar

--

-2988

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 powerfullyflavored 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. Flax flowers (Garbacik photo-above), yellow mustard (Sinapsis alba) (bottom)

Oil Seed Crops • 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).

2000 2007-08

Seed Yield (lbs/acre)

Oil Seed Crops • Production. Has peculiar response to date of planting – best seed yields are from planting in midwinter, even on snow!

2008-09

1600

2009-10

1200 800 400 0 -150

-100

-50 0 50 Day of Year

Camelina seed yield response to planting date in the Willamette Valley (top), downy mildew disease on camelina (left).

100

150