op seed size question
 

which seed size do you prefer for seed. my grader has small rounds and trash--large rounds--small flats---medium flats---large flats and trash. I would assume the smalls would all be for feed. the large flats I would think would make the most optimum seed but there are very few that make it to there. seem to have the most large rounds and then a fair amount of small flats and a lesser amount of medium flats. my planter is a plateless finger type so rounds or flats work in it and size really does not mater but still want the best size and shape for a good crop next year.

Dad , and I suppose grandad, and because of them me too use medium flats only

I`m with Bill on this one, medium flats are standard use around here. > Thanks Marc

I saw a study that pretty much said it didnt matter.
That said I prefer large or medium flats.
In a sharply sliced row flats are better about winding up with the flat side parralell to the row and thus more uniformly having the leaves perpendicular to the row better able to gather light.
I like the size cause it would seem that would be a tiny bit more reserve to deal with adversity.

Course the study said that it didnt matter, You might have seen it BEFORE they started useing the rounds and smalls for gasl
Tell the tightwads that it didnt matter and knock the price down a bit, and the rounds and smalls would get planted along with the meds and larges. Ive got plates for each size including popcorn.

I have planted all of them sized and not sized and to me they all seem to grow just the same. However I plant my corn by hand or using an old hand operated planter, about 1-3 acres. Now if I was using a corn planter behind the tractor I might feel different but I have not yet bought a planter for the tractor because I kind of like doing it by hand and since I am planting just a little it's no big deal. They just all seem to grow just the same as far as I'm concerned.

thanks for the info, this is my first op crop and it sure is a lot easier to buy the stuff already bagged and ready to go. been running the grader for better part of the day and hardly got my original seed quanity back. got barrels full for feed but not much of the medium flats.

Is your corn your using still on the cobb, or did you shell it all off already? If not just pick out the ears that are the same size in girth, then you shell off the corn off of both ends into one container (these are rounds) and then shell whats left into another container(These are the flats) and if you use ears that are around the same size the seed should be about the same size also. > Thanks Marc

One way they used to do it was, In the pioneer days when settlers came west, they had boxes attached to the sides of the covered wagons. Many of those were kept. Farmers used them later, and their sons used them. If my bro hasnt thrown the one we hasd at home, its still there in the back of the tractor shed attached to the grainery shed. It had satrap iron catches in the back, and had a slanted lid. Had to be attached to a wagon. ANYWAY. Farmers, seeing a good looking ear, would put it in the box, and empty it when he got to the crib. That winter, he and his kids would go over those ears, cut off the nub, and the butt, and shell out the centers. Those gave them med and large kernals. Those was saved for seed for the next year.

With a finger planter, it can be set up to work better with big seed, or better with small seed, depending on what you often use. But in general a wide range of medium size seed either flat or round will be fine, and a few big or small won't matter much. That is the nice part about a finger planter, you really only need to get rid of the big and small trash and use the rest.

There are some theories that big seed provides more reserve for the seedling to grow and makes stronger seedlings.

But that is tempered with the theory that small seed will soak up and grow better in a dry year than big seed needing more water to sprout...

And lots of tests that show seed size don't matter at all for growing a good corn plant.

So, for your finger planter, I'd be keeping several of the sizes and not worry about it, just get the junk cleaned out of it, and the very tiny tiny kernals, and any super jumbo kernals. But 80%+ of each ear will plant just fine for you.

--->Paul

its all shelled and theres about 150 bushels in the truck. its just a wonder what the old timer's did to get a crop. my grader is a twin city made in the late 1800's and hand craking is getting old. at least the kids will have some good corn for their livestock.

Out of the 150, how much made mediums and large

Is a "grader" the same as a seed cleaner?

Classification of seed by size is done either by using screens with different size perforations or by using a gravity table to sort by weight.

ETA, most times, the larger the seed, the more viable it will be.

No, A seed cleaner used to be known as a fanning mill. A seed grder does just that, grades by size the seed.
A seed cleaner, or fanning mill, cleans the seed of junk/trash ect.

Well if your not getting the size, medium flat, which you wanted why don't you just use a different size? Large round and large odd shaped sizes will grow just the same as medium flats or use small flats. Just use whatever it is that you got. They all grow just the same.

Interesting.

I have 2 seed cleaners that I can size nearly any size seed by changing screens and adjusting the air. Some I have to run once, change screens and run a second time to obtain the desired sizes.

I understand what you are doing oneokie, and that works.

But I'm with FarmboyBill on this one, you are still using a seed cleaner in 2 passes to get the size you want, it's still a cleaner or fanning mill.

A seed sizer will spit out several streams of seed at different sizes, mine is an old hand crank tube, with different size grooves and holes in the tube, as corn flows through to the far end it falls out the proper size hole. Never actually used it, something left from grandpa I believe.


-->Paul

Frat. The thing about using any size seed is that, At least with the old plate planters. You have to insert plates to the size of seed you expect to use. If you use a medium plate OR small, and you pour in any size seed, the large seed will either get cracked or not fit the slots to go down the tubes to the ground. IF you use a large plate, then a couple mediums can fall into each socket of the plate. They all make make it, one might get cracked. And the smalls would go down 3 easy maybe.

WITH a plate planter, You had to match the plate size with the size seed corn you had bought or graded to use.

FarmboyBill,

Yes I understand very well how planters with plates work. However according to rancher1913 he is using a plateless finger type planter which he says will use rounds or flats of any size. I'm assuming he knows what he is talking about so any seed should work for him.

bill I've got about 50 pounds of medium flats and haven't made a dent in the truck so I'm getting seed it just seemed a small amout for the amount of work. and yes you could use a clipper mill AKA fanning mil to size but it only has 1 size and then the trash and won't do the flats from rounds worth a dang. I'm using a grader and it has spouts out of all the corners and does 5 sizes at once.

When I was in grade school me and bro had to walk past a farm owned by one of the Pollard Bros. Both lived there. There was a little house a ways down from the property where the one had lived with his wife till she died, Then he moved in with the other. One day, coming home we saw them shelling corn by the crib. We walked over and noticed the ends in a bu basket and them shucking out the middles in a bucket. Asked what they were doing cause dad had already switched to hybreds and we had never seen that done. They told us. One of us asked what made the difference. They said that their dad had told them that he thought the same thing as he was tired of the shelling for what they got, so to prove a point, he had planted a few rows in the garden for sweet corn of the nubs, and a few of the butts. Said they didnt amount to nothing like the ears in the field did. AND these guys were in their late 60s then.

I understand wanting to use what you have on hand to do the job.

What percentage of the different sizes have you obtained from the 150 lbs you have run so far? Can you set up some kind of fan to blow the trash from the large flats as they exit the grader?

What about motorizing the grader? Use a jackshaft to reduce the speed of the grader to close to what it is using the hand crank?

Warning: Thread drift.

One of the farmers that I did custom harvesting for was always complaining about his low wheat yields. I talked him into hiring me to clean some wheat for him to plant back. The field that he planted that cleaned and sized seed on yielded double compared to what he planted (bought seed) on the rest of the farm. He had asked me to make adjustments to the combine to blow the shrivels and other small light seed out onto the ground until he saw how much wheat was on the ground behind the combine. He wasn't happy seeing 30% - 50% of his wheat crop being blown out of the combine and left on the ground.

about the same thing, OTHER than these guys were feeding their buts and nubs to their chickens and hogs. Nothing was wasted.
If your farmer had kept it all and graded it for seed at the grainery he could have done the same thing.

I have two old seed corn graders and use them to size the seed. I have planted all sizes of the seed and have never found any difference in the germination or the ears produced. Good seed is good seed regardless of size or shape. It all grows the same and that I know from personal experience not from what others tell me.

Seeds that are larger generally will have more energy reserves and thus can be planted deeper into moisture. Smaller seeds are usually sold as feed.

Bob