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?

c.      Make a list of possible reasons why the seedlings have not emerged.

For each reason:

a.     provide 1-2 sentences why you think the reason is possible or why you should investigate this possible reason

b.     identify a test or observation that you would want to make, in order to determine the validity of the reason.

Explanation / Answer

Ans-A- the average number of seedling will be 11+20+16+21+28+14/6= 110/6

= 18 seedling /ft2

Ans-B- as the normal are 32 seedling per ft2 and the ned have observed that in his field there is only 18 seedling per ft2. This is very much less than normal so ned should be concerned about it.

Ans-C- the reason must be dry field

Because it is given in question and also the field not properly wet shows such problems

This can be confirmed by checking the moisture content of soil.

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