What’s up this Wheat? April 6

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

Weather

• Dry week ahead in eastern Nebraska: Quantitative Precipitation Map
• Past 30 Days of Precip: Below normal rainfall in southeast NE (50-75%) and above normal in northeast NE (150%)
• Current soil moisture is good for the most part at 4, 10, 20, and 40 inches deep across eastern Nebraska

Highlight(s) in the News

• USDA-ERS: USDA-Approved Whole-Wheat Bread Package Size Is Now More Common and Less Costly for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
• Business Insider: Yeast and flour makers are ‘cranking out product like you wouldn’t believe’ to meet surging demand as isolated Americans turn to baking amid the pandemic
• April 2, 2020 Wheat Industry News from the U.S. Wheat Associates

Economics

• Farm Futures Morning Market Review, April 6: “Wheat exports out of Ukraine in the last week of March fell by nearly 50% from the previous week to 5.1 million bushels after the Ukrainian government limited international movement of wheat.”
• Local Cash Bids on April 6, 2020… down from late March
  • ADM Lincoln  4.91 (May futures 4.75, +0.15 basis)
  • Scoular Fremont  4.82 (May futures 4.75, +0.07 basis)
• Rock Valley Mixed Hay and Bedding Sale Results, April 2: $30 to $112 per ton for 3×4 straw bales, $50 to $100 per ton for large round bales.

Agronomics

• Crop Tech Cafe: Nitrogen and Sulfur and Chloride Oh My! Oz You Ready?
• UNL CropWatch: Wheat Diseases
• K-State Agronomy eUpdate:
  • What are the causes of yellow wheat?
  • Outlook for stripe rust in the 2020 Kansas wheat crop

Tips

• New YouTube video: Determining winter wheat plant population using a 1/10,000 of an acre grid
• Check out the updates made on my website, Crop Tech Cafe, including a re-organized main menu bar.
• Interested in apps? – Try Canopeo to compare and track wheat growth using the camera on your phone

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.