Well, I have run into some problems with growing barley this year. The barley seed I had left over from last year did not germinate at all (about 2%) so I had to mix that in with the chicken scratch. No problem. No waste. No worries, or so I thought.
I went to buy some "new" barley seed from the local feed house. Unfortunately, the barley seed I got this time is not much better. Germination is at about 50% (compared to last year at +95%) and I am fighting mold issues. I called the local feed house and talked to them about this issue and they said they have no control over the "quality" of the seed. They buy directly from the farmer out of their grain bins, and they don't know how old the seed actually is when they buy it. Also, they said, some years the crops are better than others and that can affect the quality of germination of the seed. They assured me that the bags of barley I got were recently filled from their supply and they don't have stockpiles of old, unsold bags of grain.
The best they could do for me was to give the telephone number of a seed company that sells certified barley seed which should be better for growing fodder. Unfortunately, that's a 100 mile round trip for me.
So, here I sit, broken hearted, with barley seed that is producing poor fodder, having mold issues, and not worth the effort to continue with this seed. Maybe I was just lucky last year and got good fresh seed. At this point, with doing everything the same as last year, my germination rate is about half of last year, I have mold issues this year and none to speak of last year, and will probably have to hit the road if I want anything better for the rest of the winter.
The local feed store did say they will be making a new purchase, from a different farmer, in a couple of weeks and that may be a better batch of seed. I might try a bag from that new purchase. In the meantime, I guess I bought another 100# of barley seed to mix into the chicken scratch.
I thought I was so good at growing barley fodder from my experience last year. It now looks like maybe I was just lucky and started off with some good seed. Certainly, if I would have had the fodder results I am currently getting this year when I was experimenting with growing fodder last year, I don't think I would have continued. Maybe this is a good thing, because now I know how vital the quality of the seed is. I am doing everything the same this year as last year in growing the fodder, but not getting near the positive results as last year.
