What’s up this Wheat? March 25

Hello All,

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

Weather

• NOAA and USDA Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin: March 24
• How much rainfall do we expect to see over the next 5-7 days? Estimates of 0.5” to 1.25”, with higher amounts in in the northeast
• Nebraska Mesonet: What are bare soil temperatures at the 4” depth? Use the drop-down menu and select 4in Soil Temp. Currently the range is 42 to 46 degrees in eastern Nebraska

Highlight(s) in the News

• 2 new hard red winter wheat varieties from Kansas Wheat Alliance: KS Western Star recommended for south-central and southwest Nebraska. However, Zenda released in 2017 is the variety they recommend for southeast Nebraska.  Zenda has performed very well in UNL variety trials in eastern Nebraska
• National Association of Wheat Growers Update – March 19 Update
• National Wheat Yield Contest: Early registration deadline is April 1^st for winter wheat. Learn more.

Economics

• Yield benefits in the corn and soybean year that comes from the wheat in the rotation need to be moved back to your wheat accrual balance or wheat crop budget. In an environment with good soils and higher moisture environment in western Illinois, the yield benefit from wheat in corn was 10 bpa and soybeans was three bpa. At current prices, that $60/acre money to move into the wheat budget or accrual accounting! Link to my presentation
• Local Cash Bids on March 25, 2020 have been going up!
  • ADM Lincoln  5.16 (+0.15 basis)
  • Scoular Fremont  5.21 (+0.20 basis)
• USDA-NASS Nebraska Crop Progress and Condition:
  • Feb. 24 2020. Winter wheat condition rated 1 percent very poor, 4 poor, 26 fair, 65 good, and 4 excellent
  • Feb. 25 2019: Winter wheat condition rated 1 percent very poor, 2 poor, 37 fair, 51 good, and 9 excellent.

Agronomics

• Chloride as a topdressing nutrient for wheat – In eastern NE, I have sampled numerous fields and the soil test do come back at <4 ppm or the low category. I do recommend 44 lbs/ac of potash to get the K-State rec of 20 pounds of chloride.
• Recommendations for topdressing wheat with sulfur – Again, I also recommend S application in eastern NE, especially southeast NE! Use sulfate forms for quick availability this spring.
• Pay attention to growth stage for spring herbicide decision on wheat

Tips

• Email me at to report you stand counts/population! A quick and easy way to determine your plant population per acre.
• View some of my February 2020 presentations to Iowa Farmers and UNL Students
• Learn more about the soil health benefits of adding wheat to the corn-soybean rotation. Quick one-page summary

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.