You work in North Dakota as a crop consultant. A local farmer, Ned, calls you in

Question

You work in North Dakota as a crop consultant. A local farmer, Ned, calls you in distress. He recently planted a field of spring wheat and has noticed that the seedling emergence was “spotty”, i.e. the stand was not very good. Ned is wondering why this could have happened and asks you to investigate.

You ask him a couple of questions about the seed and the planting. In an attempt to save money Ned bought some seed that “was cheaper than the average priced seed”. He also planted the seed in a seedbed that he described as “not too wet, maybe on the drier side”.  

You ask Ned more questions about the definition of “spotty”. He replies, “I thought you may want to know about that. I can send some pictures. I also went out and counted the number of seedlings in a square ft area at several places in the field. I got the following seedling counts: 11, 20, 16, 21, 28, and 14”.

As a good crop consultant, you make arrangements to visit Ned the next day. But before you visit the field, you investigate some possible reasons for the “spotty” emergence.

a.     What is the average number of seedlings/ft2, according to Ned’s sampling?

b.     The norm is about 30-32 seedlings per ft2.   Should Ned be concerned about the stand? Why?

Explanation / Answer

Average seedlings per sqft according to Ned's sample is 11 + 20+ 16 + 21+ 28+14 = 110/6 = 18 per sqft. Yes. Because the seedlings per sqft is almost half of the normal count. This will lead to loss while harvesting as the unhealthy part of the field will grow providing nothing.

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