The purpose of the current study was to identify the optimized seeding rate of the spring barley variety ‘Lyuboyar’ to obtain an economically profitable yield in the conditions of the non-blackearth part of the Central region of the Russian Federation on dark gray forest soils of a mean fertility level. The trials were carried out in the conditions of the Ryazan region in the selection crop rotation when sown in “black” fallow in 2022–2023. The trial scheme included the study of 6 options: 3.0; 3.5; 4.0; 4.5; 5.0 and 5.5 million germinating seeds per 1 hectare. There has been established that the optimal option in terms of field germination and preservation of plants for harvesting is the norm of 4.0 million per 1 ha with 89.5 % and 77.5 %, respectively. The number of survived plants before harvesting, the number of productive stems, plant height, head length, number of grains per head and grain weight per head have a significant contribution to crop productivity (r = +0.727...+0.955). The maximum number of stems (924 pcs/m2) and head length (9.2 cm) was demonstrated by the variant with a seeding rate of 4.5 million, height (83 cm) with 5.0 million, productive tillering (3.1) with 5.0–5.5 million, number of grains per head (23.9 pcs.) with 4.0 million, weight of grain per head (1.2 g) with 4.0–4.5 million, 1000-grain weight (47.5 g) with 3.0 million seeds per hectare. It was found that with an increase in the seeding rate, the number of plants increases before harvesting, the number of productive stems, plant height, tillering coefficient and head length increase with r = +0.543...+0.889, but there has been a decrease in indicators such as head weight (r = -0.355) and, especially, 1000-grain weight (r = -0.752). The largest productivity of 7.05 t/ha was obtained with a seeding rate of 4.0 million seeds per hectare, in the second place there was 6.90 t/ha with a rate of 4.5 million seeds per ha. At seeding rates of 4.0–4.5 million germ. seeds per 1 ha, the highest profitability was 67.2–60.2 %.