You’ve heard about the early birds, up before dawn catching worms. Now, it’s time to meet their wheat-farming counterparts.
This year’s National Wheat Yield Contest winners set themselves apart from the pack in many ways, but their early-season attention to detail is top of the list. Before a planter even approaches a field, they’ve invested time, money and brainpower on the minutiae of planting: picking seed and seed treatments to match each field’s needs, preparing the seedbed just so, studying and finessing planting population, and scrutinizing their soil’s nutrient needs before an ounce of fertilizer is applied.
“My son Matt coined a phrase — it’s called ‘intentional management’,” says Dale Wehmeyer, an Illinois farmer and seedsman whose soft red wheat field landed fifth place in the 2020 contest’s dryland winter wheat category, with an impressive yield of 119.40 bushels per acre (bpa). “Everything you do to raise that crop is because you have a goal in mind.”
IT ALL STARTS WITH THE SEED
“Start by knowing the variety and building on its strengths, and mitigating its weaknesses,” Wehmeyer recommends.
A good seed dealer can help you find varieties that best fit your area. Wehmeyer, for example, runs a seed company, AgriMAXX, whose varieties are finely tuned for the eastern half of the U.S., where soft red wheat is produced.
Do you need a fast-emerging variety to jump out of the ground and pile on tillers in a short, cold Midwestern fall? Or, do you want a slower, moisture-maximizing variety for a long, dry Oklahoma fall?
In southeastern Washington, John Dixon’s 189.97-bpa field topped the contest’s dryland winter wheat category this year. A key contributor was his variety’s high rust resistance, good straw strength and solid final test weights, which make it an ideal fit for his dryland operation. “We have had this variety for several years and been very impressed with its ability to yield in our operation,” he says.
Bruce Ruddenklau, who won one of the contest’s Bin Buster awards with a 191.17-bpa dryland winter wheat field, farms in the well-watered, heavily irrigated region of northwestern Oregon. If his varieties can’t stand up to moisture-loving fungal infections, it’s time to go shopping. “When it starts to weaken on disease resistance, it’s time to replace it,” he explains.
Seed treatments are an increasingly popular choice among wheat farmers, as well. Packages range in ingredients, but they typically pack on an insecticide, fungicide and sometimes a plant growth stimulant.
TUCKING SEEDS IN
Travis Freeburg, whose dryland winter wheat field yielded 350% above the county average in southeastern Wyoming, knows how important no-till practices can be for preserving moisture. But, he’s also discovered that his wheat fields respond beautifully to the minimum tillage they’ve resorted to in the face of herbicide-resistant kochia.
“We’ve found that we’re getting better stands, because we get better soil-to-seed contact,” he says. Ruddenklau unearthed similar results on his Oregon operation. “We have found that just a little bit of tillage can be beneficial,” he says.
Good seedbeds are definitely possible in no-till fields, as well, notes Dave Clark, a farmer and Nutrien crop consultant in Tyrone, Pennsylvania, where no-till practices are more common because of regional environmental restrictions. But, a good planter is essential, as is the proper seeding depth for your region.
“For us, it needs to be about an inch to an inch and a half,” he says. “You get better and more consistent germination, and a more even wheat stand.”
LANDING ON THE RIGHT POPULATION
Ideally, a wheat farmer would pick his or her planting time with hourly precision. “I’m a firm believer in getting planted early to get the most fall tillering,” Wehmeyer notes. “We know today if we can achieve three tillers per plant in the fall, that head on each tiller will be pretty close to the same size as the primary tiller.” But, don’t push too early for your region, he cautions, as overly lush fall fields pack problems of their own, such as disease risks and depleted soil moisture.
Tweaking planting population is another way to encourage tillering.
That’s a conclusion Derek Friehe, whose 206.7-bpa irrigated winter wheat field snagged the contest’s highest yield honors, also reached on his east-central Washington operation. “We were relying too much on higher seed rates,” he says. Now, he focuses on planting as early as possible, getting nutrients in the ground quickly and pushing those fall tillers. “You’re going to get similar results as you might with a heavier seeding rate, but you’re saving on seed costs and allowing that plant to tiller out and get more space.”
A late-planted field with fewer fall tillers can play catch-up if it’s planted more densely, Wehmeyer says, noting that he pushes from 1.2 million seeds per acre for early planting up to 1.8 million if his fall planting date slips too far into October or early November.
Fine-tuning your plant population to match other agronomic needs is important, too, Clark says. Where he farms in central Pennsylvania, the wheat straw market is a booming business. He’s found that packing fields with 1.9 million to 2.1 million seeds can maximize yields and leave a field bristling with wheat straw material and extra income. Of course, farmers have to be willing to up their fertility rates to feed those fields, he adds. “The biggest thing that changed for me in the last five years is realizing we weren’t fertilizing this crop enough,” he says. “Once we started to do that, wheat yields went up significantly.”
TEST, TEST, TEST
Where he farms in the southeastern corner of Wyoming, violent thunderstorms form over Freeburg’s wheat fields every spring and summer, and hail losses are an annual affair. This year, his winning wheat field entry just barely dodged the dreaded White Combine to make 110.37 bpa.
So, Freeburg is careful where he places his nutrients and other inputs, using variable-rate applications of micronutrients and doing soil and tissue samples before planting and throughout the season to give the soil only what it needs when it needs it.
That kind of testing and nutrient precision is a common theme among high-yielding wheat farmers. Ruddenklau does a mineralizable nitrogen test in late winter to see what his soils hold before he puts a single pound of nitrogen, sulfur or other nutrients on his field.
The father-son team of Doug and Trevor Stout have embraced variable-rate nutrient applications driven by regular soil testing on their Idaho operation. “We’re taking and making the most return out of ground with soil testing and tissue sampling, and monitoring it,” the elder Stout says. “We’re never putting on more than what we need in each part of the field.”
In fact, Doug credits this careful management with the family’s multiple contest wins, including a Bin Buster dryland spring wheat yield of 139.22 bpa this year.
So, is there a downside to being a details-obsessed early bird?
Well, your work is never quite done, Clark warns.
“Seeing results from the wheat contest changed that for me,” the Pennsylvania grower says. “I realized I’m not done playing with this crop yet because I don’t know its full potential yet.”
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