What’s Up This Wheat? May 13-19

Hello All,

What’s Up This Wheat? Weekly highlights and resources for growing winter wheat in Eastern Nebraska.

Weather

• Nebraska Drought Monitor for May 17 – A 5% reduction in the area under abnormally dry area coming from north of the Platte River. Slight reduction in the D1 drought rating for southeast Nebraska.
• Significant rainfall predicted over the next week: Quantitative Precipitation Forecasts
• Some rain fell over the past 7 days, mostly in the southeast corner: View at NOAA Quantitative Precipitation Estimates
• Soil moisture sensors in Dodge County wheat field showed great soil profile moisture, only 1.0” depleted in the top 3 feet on July 17
• Soil moisture update from Jenny Rees on May 10 for Clay, Nuckolls, and Thayer counties

Highlight(s) in the Media

• Farm Talk: Wheat Worries, Deteriorating conditions seed on Oklahoma wheat tour
• 2018 National Wheat Yield Contest: Nebraska had the most entries

Economics: Supply

• USDA-NASS Nebraska’s 2018 winter wheat crop forecast at 43 bpa, down 3 bpa from 2017. Total 2018 forecasted NE bushels at 42.6 million.

Agronomics

• CropWatch Article: Wheat Disease Update for southeast Nebraska
• CropWatch Article: Sulfur deficiency in portions of southeast Nebraska
• K-State Extension Agronomy eUpdate: Forage options for drought-stressed wheat
• Nebraska Wheat Crop Report May 16, 2018 including southeast Nebraska
• 2018 Nebraska winter wheat condition similar to 2016 and better than 2014, 2015, 2017.
• Educator reports
  • Jenny Rees, May 10: “Wheat in Nuckolls, Thayer, and Webster counties showing moisture stress this week with a blue-gray color and lower leaves turning brown. In general wheat is short and ranges in growth stage from elongation to near boot.”
  • Nathan Mueller, May 18: Visited 8 fields in Washington, Dodge, and Colfax counties ranging from Feekes 6 (jointing) to Feekes 10.1 (head emerging) this week. No diseases found with some light aphid pressure. Growers applying some additional nitrogen given good soil moisture condition. Varieties being grown in these fields include Wolf, Ruth, WB-Cedar & WB4458
• Eastern Nebraska growth stage reports: Feekes 6 to Feekes 10.1
  • Visual Guide of Winter Wheat Development and Growth Staging

Tips

• Attend an upcoming wheat field day:
  • May 30, Wheat Plot Tour near Fairbury at Mark Knobel’s Farm
    • CropWatch Article
    • Register to attend
  • June 12, Winter Wheat and Pulse Crop Field Day near Mead at Eastern Nebraska Research & Extension Center
    • CropWatch Article
    • Program Flyer
    • Great free lunch from Parker’s Smokehouse
    • Register to attend
  • Check out the Fusarium Head Blight Risk Assessment Tool
  • Increase aerial fungicide applications to 5 gallons per acre for Fusarium head blight suppression
  • #wheat, follow this person on Twitter – Dr. Romulo Lollato @KSUWheat @UNLPlantClinic

Please feel free to email me and the group with comments or questions!

You can view previous weekly emails at https://croptechcafe.org.

This email is part of the Winter Wheat Works Initiative, a local Nebraska 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.