# Coated Seed



## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Here's Progressive Forage Grower on coated alfalfa seed. I really am not sure how I feel about coated seed.....you get less seed per volume, but better germination....supposedly. I planted 16 acres of orchardgrass....12 with uncoated seed and 4 with coated seed. I cannot tell the difference in the stands....they were planted last week of September and they look equally good.

Regards, Mike

Coated alfalfa seed - Is it worth it?


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## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

This is a copy and paste of a NAT Posting by a truely big acreage alfalfa grower. He has more ground in pivot tracks than I farm.

Great Guy to Boot .

It is 2.5 years old, so the link appears to be broke.

Quote:

It appears that many buyers of alfalfa seed are only looking at the disease packages. As mentioned above by redneckacres "Forage Geneics is the major alfalfa breeder in the US & develops 90% of all alfalfa worldwide".

One big thing you guys are missing is what is listed on the label. Some of you, especially if you are buying WL is you could be getting up to 20% of the 50lb bag of seed as DIRT. Seed companies have started adding crop coating as they call it. What that is, is dirt, be it lime or clay that supposedly has come seed enhancement attached. This is to help the seed. It also helps the seed company, as they get more dollars per lb of seed. If you are paying $3 per lb, $150 per bag, and only 80% is actual seed, then you are really paying $3.75 lb.

The biggest seed problem for establishment is in fungicides. This treatment is recommended on all seed, and takes up very little space in a 50 lb bag.

As far as planting, you will have to adjust your seeding rate upward, as you are not planting what you think. If you plant 20lbs / ac. You will need to set your planter for 20% more, or 24 lbs.
Your planting rate per acres has now gone from $60 ac. to $90 an ac.

Shannon Mueller, Fresno Co. Calif, Farm Advisor states "Mueller said coating came into vogue several years ago when shortages of seed led seedsmen to apply coatings to extend supplies. Three bags of raw seed became the equivalent of four bags of coated seed. Although some coatings are inert materials, more often they include fertilizer, fungicides, or Rhizobial bacterium to promote germination to establish the same number of seedlings with fewer seeds.
Seed trials compared raw and coated seed, both seeded at the 25-pound rate. Although in the first month the coated seed germinated more plants than the raw, by one year after planting, there was no significant difference between the number of raw and coated seed plants".

This link is a good read on this subject.
http://agbiopubs.sdstate.edu/articles/ExEx8102.pdf

*This past year, I had decided to plant a WL variety. After the pallets were delivered, 6,000 lbs, I read the tag and noticed the huge amount of coating that was in the bags. I called them to come pick it up, which they reluctantly did. I wanted seed, not DIRT!*

I added the emphases.

=================================================
Knowing all this I have planted WL again this year. WL 442 has to date been my best yielding variety. I would still be planting it if it had the wet foot root rot resistance that their WL 354 has. 
The 354 is new to me and has not proven to be good or bad. 
I do plant 30 lbs/A but that is a personal problem for this soil, climate and my weak management style.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

I think the newer coatings have more goodies in it then the first ones that came out.The key is to get the seed to grow.If it all grew you would need only maybe 10 lbs of seed per acre.


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