Not everyone appears to like Shrek (the cartoon character) a bit like some of the farming community not liking the idea of growing dried peas. There are several reasons for this including the fact that the weather never seems to co-operate. Poor weather at drilling, poor weather at flowering and poor weather at harvest and you soon begin to understand why.
To make this a profitable crop to grow harvested quality and then yield are important. Quality is a subject in its self but what can we do to target a more consistent and planned for yield in our own particular circumstances?
One important consideration it plant population per m2. This needs to be considered from two stand points. First what yield do I want and then what yield am I most likely to achieve. If the yield I want is low then this can be achieved with a low plant population. If the yield I want is high and I am able to successfully manage factors under my control then the plant population required will also need to be high.
Target plant populations for planned lower yielding crops start at 35/m2 moving to 50, then 75 and finally 100/m2.
Establishing how much seed to plant is a crucial first step towards your yield target. Knowing empirically how successful this first stage of your cropping plan was, paves the way to a greater possibility of successfully achieving the yield objectives you set in the beginning.