What’s NEW With Wheat?

Varieties

There are some exciting new wheat varieties available for this year!

Soft White

Ashley is the first soft white wheat variety to have a MS rating for Fusarium, based on 3 year (solid) data. It also has the highest yield of the soft white category, performing particularly well in Area 2. The main downfall - standability….

Soft Red

Finally! There is something available to rival the yield of 25R47. The new variety Emmit is top of the charts, performing consistently on three year data. Emmit is even on top in Area 3, giving a good indication that the yield should be stable. In addition to yield, Emmit has an MS for Fusarium, again based on 3 year data. The main concerns - standability (equal to Wisdom) and low test weight compared to the class.

Hard Red

BORING! Simply nothing new this year.

Other notes:

Tribute (25R26 quality) will have a $12.00/tonne premium attached to it this year.

25R51, the new variety from Pioneer with improved Fusarium tolerance over the other Pioneer lines, was missed in the performance trials last fall. Thus there is no official data. Pioneer data indicates a 5.8 bu/ac yield lag compared with 25R47.

R055 (srw) and E1009 (sww) are two other new lines that may appear in a small way by October. Both are pending registration, and are sponsored by Genesis Brand Seeds. Yield index on 1 year data is 106 to 108.

Going Going…. Warwick, RC Strategy, and 25R23 are all being dropped from the performance trials this year. This is an indication that they will not be sold next fall. AC RON has been removed from the performance trial data this year, as the company no longer has any seed available for sale.

STRAW?

For those growers that are interested in straw yields, Table 1 provides an indication of what might be expected from various soft red wheat varieties. Please note that this is only one site with one replicate, and thus it is extremely thin information. However, based on many other visual observations, it gives some numbers to what many growers have already observed.

Table 1: Straw Yields

Cruiser

Based on 25 side-by-side trials this year, the average yield increase on wheat was only 1.6 bu/ac. The response appears to be an “all or nothing” phenomenon. Of the 25 trials, only four sites showed significant yield gain, likely where wireworm or chaffer pressure was high. However, as in the article by our entomologist Tracey Baute, it is a bit hard to predict when this will be a problem, other than field history.

Table 2: Cruiser Results

Wheat Seeding Populations??

Continued frustration!! Far too many growers use farm saved seed, and up the population “just in case” and because “it doesn’t cost much”. After three years of population studies, there are some conclusions that you should be aware of.

First - Planting early with varieties that tend to lodge can result in disaster if you seed at high populations. Figure 1 shows exactly what happens - less yield!! When you are planting early, target 1.2 million seeds per acre.

Second - There is absolutely no benefit to going above the recommended seeding rate (1.5 million seeds per acre) when planting at the normal time. Time and time again my results show that in the normal planting window, there is no benefit above 1.2 million. Occasionally we see an increased yield at the 1.5 million rate, but this is definitely the upper end.

Last - Even when planting late, on heavy soils, it is rare to have a response above 1.5 million seeds/acre. Occasionally it occurs, as seen in Figure 2. If planting late into less than ideal conditions, with a marginal weather forecast, increasing seeding rates to 1.8 million is simply buying insurance. Note, however, that the yield potential in these situations is reduced, and that the right answer is to plant on time!

Figure 1: September 20 Vienna (lodging)

Figure 2: October 15 planting date

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