What’s up this Wheat? April 16

What’s up this Wheat? Weekly highlights and resources for producing winter wheat in eastern Nebraska.

Weather

• High Plains Regional Climate Center:Station Tool and view Crete 4ESE station with two record cold days set on April 10 and 14. Station data from 1893-Current.
• USDA Midwest Climate Hub: Extreme Cold-Freezing Impacts
• USDA Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin: April 14

Highlight(s) in the News

• Nebraska Wheat Board Crop Report: April 15 – Southeast – Wheat crop is not jointed…
• Progressive Farmer DTN: Wheat Freeze injury Ahead, Multiple Freezes Threaten Winter Wheat in the Southern Great Plains
• Opportunity to serve on the Nebraska Wheat Board: Applications due May 1

Economics

• U.S. Wheat Associates Weekly Price Report: April 10 and subscribe to weekly content at www.uswheat.org/subscribe1
• Local Cash Bids on April 16, 2020
  • ADM Lincoln  4.89 (May futures 4.73, +0.15 basis)
  • Scoular Fremont  4.90 (May futures 4.73, +0.16 basis)
• Rock Valley Mixed Hay and Bedding Sale Results, April 9: $30 to $97.50 per ton for 3×4 straw bales, $55 per ton for large round bales.

Agronomics

• Review of Wheat Growth Stages:
  • From north to south in eastern Nebraska plus variation in planting dates, growth stage likely range from Feekes 3 to Feekes 5. Growing point below ground.
• UNL CropWatch: Freeze Injury in Winter Wheat a Common Occurrence in Nebraska
• K-State Agronomy eUpdate: Potential for spring freeze injury to wheat on April 3, 2020

Tips

• Review the K-State publication on Spring Freeze Injury to Kansas Wheat
• “Wheat has nine lives” Several of the nine lives of wheat utilized here in early April. Most aboveground wheat biomass is burned back in eastern Nebraska due to multiple record cold freeze events. Be patient and don’t draw conclusions yet! Wheat was still in the tillering stage, so growing point was belowground. Should be viable and regrowth expected once favorable weather returns this weekend into next week. Impacts: Delayed maturity (assuming average temps rest of the season), loss of some tillers, and slight/moderate yield losses. I expect some variation in damage/recovery by variety too.
• Send me pictures and keep sending me pictures this growing season! Email to

Please feel free to email me and other wheat farmers in eastern Nebraska that are a part of this email group with comments or questions!

You can view previous weekly emails at croptechcafe.org/winterwheat/

This email is part of the Winter Wheat Works Initiative, a local University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension effort to encourage and support growers in eastern Nebraska to move from a strict corn-soybean rotation to a successful flex-rotation where some winter wheat acres are considered each year and strategically integrated into their cropping system.