The concept of buying seed based on number of seeds, rather than weight, is certainly familiar for farmers who grow corn and soybeans, but it’s a new approach for canola.
InVigor — which changed owners this week, from Bayer to BASF — plans to introduce seed count packaging to the canola market in 2020.
“Starting in 2020, our packaging will come in four ranges, with each range representing a thousand seed weight (TSW) range,” explains Wade Stocker, InVigor canola seeds and traits manager, in the video below, filmed at Ag in Motion near Saskatoon last month.
“What we’ve tried to do is take away the need to calibrate for every single TSW, and put it within a range.”
Each bag will contain at least 4.25 million seeds, or the equivalent needed for 10 acres based on a recommended plant stand of 5 to 7 plants per square foot and 60 percent survivability, he says.
InVigor will assign a label of A, B, C or D, depending on the TSW range, with A bags containing the smallest seeds (4.0-4.4 TSW) D bags the largest (5.5-5.9 TSW). Rather than a standard 50 lb bag, the weight of each unit will range from 42.2 lb for A canola seed to 56.7 lb for a bag containing D seed.
Price will be consistent across all four seed sizes, notes Stocker: “We know regardless of the seed size in this range, they all perform the same, from a germination, vigour and yield perspective.”
Related:
- Canola School: Basing seeding rates on thousand kernel weight
- Not too high, not too low — Bayer’s canola seeding rate findings
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