Grain Seed (Barley, Oats)

I have been looking for some barley seed or Oat seed, Both are running about 50 cents a pound in the Casper area which is high. I have seen it as low as $3 to $4 a bushel (48 lbs for barley) in Maine. A little far for me to travel for seed, wanting to buy 10 tons (20,000lbs) and would haul it myself. If you know of any places that sell seed and you know of a good price, I'll travel to the midwest and even farther if the price is rite, Maine is about the farthest place from me in the US. I would travel to Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, maybe even Illinois and Indiana for the rite price. But 50 cents a pound is just too spendy for me when across the country it is $4 a bushel or less, $4 a bushel comes to under 9 cents a lb, 5 times less then what I'm looking at. I'd appreciate it if you would let me know of cheap grain seed prices in the midwest or northern midwest where I could get grain seed at a reasonable price, direct from a farmer even. I would wait till harvest also if I could buy it direct from a farmer. I am looking for this to grow and not feed, so it can't be ground up or crushed. Thanks.

I don't know if its legal but a guy used to buy oats here from the seed mill and planted it. Our coop guy has talked 5 guys here to planting half circles on short wells. He has seed reserved for us but I haven't checked the price. Maybe I ought to.

AJ, if the guy is wanting to sell the seed, let me know what he is wanting for it. From what I had seen in the past, when late August early September rolls around, the seed prices should fall from the harvest of all the grain seed during that time. I would travel west also as I heard the Idaho has good grain seed prices at times, but even going all the way to California is no further than alot of the midwestern states from me, I would travel west also if I could find grain seed out west for a decent price.

I would think that the Bighorn Basin or Torrington areas would have quite a bit of barley and oat seed available.  Northeast Colorado and Scottsbluff, NE areas as well.  Lots of farmers under contract with the beer companies for the barley.  Oats used for cover crops on irrigated alfalfa so should be quite a bit of that as well.  You looking for grain oats or forage oats?

GoWyo said:

I would think that the Bighorn Basin or Torrington areas would have quite a bit of barley and oat seed available.  Northeast Colorado and Scottsbluff, NE areas as well.  Lots of farmers under contract with the beer companies for the barley.  Oats used for cover crops on irrigated alfalfa so should be quite a bit of that as well.  You looking for grain oats or forage oats?

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I know alot of the barley in Colorado is already spoken for with the beer production. I contacted farm production services office just outside of Scottsbluff but they said they don't deal in barley seed or oat seed. My next step was going to try and find a place in Torrington but the only place I know of is Z&W mill who I buy grain from but I don't know if they deal in seed. Cause isn't the oats in COB steamed causing it to not germinate and grow? Cause I know I can buy whole oats from them but I don't know if they would germinate cause of the process they go through. But I would love to find a farmer and cut out the middle man and give the farmer a little more and save money myself, the problem is finding one. I was looking at using grain oats and combining the seed with a combine and then baling the straw, but would use forage oats or barley if the price was much cheaper. In Casper only a 50 cent difference in 50lb bag price with the grain barley being 50 cents cheaper per 50lbs.

Seed oats here are $26/bag, or 50#.  So $0.50/# isn't bad.  A few things you have to look out for:  if you get just feed oats from the elevator, especially with this years hot weather, the germination may not be very good; it is actually illegal, depending on the variety, to buy seed that you plan to combine from a farmer who is not licensed to sell the seed; if you get the oats from the elevator, they will not be cleaned, guys around here try it all the time, germ is not good, mice and rats in them, always plugging the drills, and they are incredibly dusty; the last thing is, in Kansas, if the person you are buying oats from does not have a seed sales permit from the state, it is illegal to sell any seed.  At a price of $5/bushel for feed oats, plus the price of cleaning and bagging, and knowing the oats have been germ tested and OK'ed through a state agency, you're cheap oats may not be so much so.

My question is:

Would you buy semen from a bull just because it is happens to be cheap and is from the same breed you are breeding, or maybe even worse, that it happens to be black and you want a black bull, brred unknown?

Bought, certified seed usually has a germination percentage and is weed free, as well as the fact that you know what you are getting!

I understand not all seed is the same, If I could not find seed cheaper I just would not seed it and just combine part of my pasture and reseed it in the areas I wanted to put some grain seed in. So feed grain, oat and barley, are they treated or gone through any process, steamed or whatever that will kill the seed? I understand depending on how the grain has been kept and drought and so forth that could hurt the germination of the seed, I just want to know if the feed grain seed (oats and barley) could germinate and is not dead from a treatment process.

Plant some whole oats in a cup and see if they sprout.  Should know in a few days.  If not crimped or milled, I don't see why they wouldn't sprout.

I am in Idaho on the Idaho/wyoming line.  I have a supplier of both and plant both barley and oats.  You might check Walton Feed in Montpelier, Idaho they deliver to the Bridger Valley of Wyoming a couple times a month.