- 31 -
- 31 -
6.4 SEED DOSAGE ADJUSTMENT
Using high quality certified seeds it is not enough to know
the weight in kilograms that the machine must distribute, as
the final result of the harvest will depend on the number of
plants which eventually ripen.
Each plant requires a certain amount of land from which nu-
trients will be absorbed. Therefore, either low or excessive
plant density can be detrimental. To determine the kilo-
grams per hectare to be sown, it is necessary to know the
amount of plants that are going to be planted per square
metre.
As a guidance, the recommended number of plants per
square metre when sowing wheat or barley in non-irrigated
land is as follows:
FALL
SPRING
Premature sowing, 200 plants per m
2
Premature sowing, 310 plants per m
2
Late sowing: 265 plants per m
2
Late sowing: 445 plants per m
2
Seed dosing shall be adjusted to each terrain, depending on
the texture, fertilizing level, rain gauge measurements, sow-
ing season, grain quality, germinating and tillering power, etc.
It shall be taken into account that a seed’s germinating pow-
er is variable and dependant on multiple factors. It is exper-
imentally calculated to be between 70% and 80%, which is
practically equivalent to multiplying the number of grains to
be sown by 1, 43 or 1,25 respectively.
PLEASE NOTE THAT, IN SPRING, TILLERING IS
ALWAYS LOWER AND, THEREFORE, THE SEED
AMOUNT TO BE SOWN SHALL INCREASE.
MAQUINARIA AGRÍCOLA SOLA, S.L.
, RECOM-
MENDS THE FARMER TO SEEK PROFESSIONAL
ADVICE ABOUT THIS SUBJECT, SUCH AS ITG DEL
CEREAL, AGRICULTURAL UNION TRADES, ETC.
Below, we describe a practical method to determine the
number of kilograms per hectare to be distributed consid-
ering the amount of plants per square metre that we want
to obtain.
Fig. 6.35
1-
Introduce the seed counter (Fig. 6.27) inside the seed sack
for filling it.
2-
When taking it out, wipe the seed counter with your hand
to make sure that there is only one grain per slot (100
grains in total).
3-
Repeat the same procedure 10 more times to obtain 1000
grains
4-
Weigh 1000 grains with the precision scales.
The obtained weight in
GRAMS
is called
OPERATIVE WEI-
GHT
. Once we know the amount of seeds per square metre
to be sowed, the kilograms per hectare that must be adjust-
ed with the dosage control are:
KILOGRAMS PER HECTARE
=
(
grains per m
2
x
OPERATIVE WEIGHT
) /
100
