How deep to sow barley?

Deepsouthwest

About to sow wholecrop (barley and grass) here in the nxt few days. Last yr field was ploughed, power harrowed, then barley was spread with the fertiliser spreader and followed with a one pass with the grass seed and rolled in. Just wondering is there such a thing as going too deep when covering the barley seed as I was told last yr I was lucky it came up after covering it with the power harrow. Also had a lot of crows picking at it after in came up, and was told I didn't go deep enough, so I'm a little confused, as u might have guessed I'm not from a tillage background!

freedominacup

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

About to sow wholecrop (barley and grass) here in the nxt few days. Last yr field was ploughed, power harrowed, then barley was spread with the fertiliser spreader and followed with a one pass with the grass seed and rolled in. Just wondering is there such a thing as going too deep when covering the barley seed as I was told last yr I was lucky it came up after covering it with the power harrow. Also had a lot of crows picking at it after in came up, and was told I didn't go deep enough, so I'm a little confused, as u might have guessed I'm not from a tillage background!

Our contractor didn't power harrow the final pass with the one pass iykwim. He only barely tilled in the barley and fert. That said he had power harrowed it all before the barley and fert was spread.

yellow50HX

Sounds like your doing pig it the wrong way round, most people use the 1 pass to put in the barley then spread the grass seed with the spreader.

Plough 1st then power harrow. Spread the seed with your fertilzer spreader then run a zig zag harrow over it to cover. Then spread your grass seed and roll.

freedominacup

yellow50HX wrote: »

Sounds like your doing pig it the wrong way round, most people use the 1 pass to put in the barley then spread the grass seed with the spreader.

Plough 1st then power harrow. Spread the seed with your fertilzer spreader then run a zig zag harrow over it to cover. Then spread your grass seed and roll.

The contractor put it to me like this. Which is the most important to have right? Answer, the grass seed therefore you sow that with the seeder to give it the best start possible simples.

epfff

I always disk put barley out with shaker then power harrow in with grass
Guys tell me it won't grow as it's too deep
Most of those guys Dont sow anything
And mine grows fine imo
So why would I change when it's working fine

blue5000

Last year I just shook the barley straight onto the ploughed scrapes, ran a leveller over it, first time at an angle to the ploughing so that the barley got dragged in between the scrapes IYKWIM. Then it got 2 more passes with the leveller. Then shook the grass seed with the vicon and rolled it twice with a flat roller.

6480

blue5000 wrote: »

Last year I just shook the barley straight onto the ploughed scrapes, ran a leveller over it, first time at an angle to the ploughing so that the barley got dragged in between the scrapes IYKWIM. Then it got 2 more passes with the leveller. Then shook the grass seed with the vicon and rolled it twice with a flat roller.

as good a way as any , i do it here the same way if the soil is good and dry

Deepsouthwest

yellow50HX wrote: »

Sounds like your doing pig it the wrong way round, most people use the 1 pass to put in the barley then spread the grass seed with the spreader.

Plough 1st then power harrow. Spread the seed with your fertilzer spreader then run a zig zag harrow over it to cover. Then spread your grass seed and roll.

Afraid if I put in the barley with the one pass, and just rolled it in with the grass seed that the birds would have a field day and clean out what barley seed is there. It worked well last yr covering it with the power harrow(we did have it set v high) but back to the original question how deep can u cover barley seed for it still to come up ok?

blue5000

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

Afraid if I put in the barley with the one pass, and just rolled it in with the grass seed that the birds would have a field day and clean out what barley seed is there. It worked well last yr covering it with the power harrow(we did have it set v high) but back to the original question how deep can u cover barley seed for it still to come up ok?

2 to 3 inches, bigger seed varieties like propino, in my opinion, could go an inch deeper. Check the 1000 grain weight, over 50 grams is a bigger seed. But I'm just a farmer, not an agronomist:pac:

Deepsouthwest

blue5000 wrote: »

2 to 3 inches, bigger seed varieties like propino, in my opinion, could go an inch deeper. Check the 1000 grain weight, over 50 grams is a bigger seed. But I'm just a farmer, not an agronomist:pac:

Will do, thanx for that

sheebadog

blue5000 wrote: »

2 to 3 inches, bigger seed varieties like propino, in my opinion, could go an inch deeper. Check the 1000 grain weight, over 50 grams is a bigger seed. But I'm just a farmer, not an agronomist:pac:

Seed size in barley have no influence on seeding depth.

blue5000

sheebadog wrote: »

Seed size in barley have no influence on seeding depth.

As I said I'm not an agronomist.

Deepsouthwest

sheebadog wrote: »

Seed size in barley have no influence on seeding depth.

So how deep can I go without burying it forever?

yellow50HX

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

Afraid if I put in the barley with the one pass, and just rolled it in with the grass seed that the birds would have a field day and clean out what barley seed is there. It worked well last yr covering it with the power harrow(we did have it set v high) but back to the original question how deep can u cover barley seed for it still to come up ok?

Easy way to check is watch how the local tillage lad puts in his seed, almost all do it with a one pass so that can't be all wrong. Grass seed dosent need much depth so when it's shook out afterwards and then rolled seems to do ok.

keep going

We spread the barley first and set the grass seed with one pass.we set around 3 inchs .doing that way with a couple of years and its works grand alot faster than doing it the other way round

Deepsouthwest

yellow50HX wrote: »

Easy way to check is watch how the local tillage lad puts in his seed, almost all do it with a one pass so that can't be all wrong. Grass seed dosent need much depth so when it's shook out afterwards and then rolled seems to do ok.

Farming in the westest of west cork, not many tillage guys around here to ask!

Deepsouthwest

keep going wrote: »

We spread the barley first and set the grass seed with one pass.we set around 3 inchs .doing that way with a couple of years and its works grand alot faster than doing it the other way round

Did the same as that here last yr and it worked out pretty good. That's why I was wondering just how far I could go, without going too deep

sheebadog

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

So how deep can I go without burying it forever?

2 inches is about right.