Throughout Ontario the 2022 winter wheat is looking … okay.
As of March 3, most of the winter wheat crop was still under snow cover and had not accumulated many growing degree days, but that doesn’t mean growers shouldn’t be paying attention to their crop and scouting as the wheat begins to enter “green-up” phase soon.
Why it matters: Scouting winter wheat early on in season is important to determine whether it is a strong crop or should be terminated.
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With the wet fall most of Ontario experienced last year there are many drowned out spots and “tile run wheat” where wheat is growing well over tile runs, not so well in between.
“That’ll be the wheat that is questionable,” says Dale Cowan, strategy manager and senior agronomist with AGRIS Co-operative.
Although Ontario did experience some cold temperatures with a lack of snow insulation in some areas, it should not be of concern as the temperature at the crown of the plant is more important.
“From a winterkill standpoint I think we are in pretty good shape. Our issue will be any prolonged formation of ice that will suffocate the wheat. That’s been a bit of a concern lately, but that has since gone away.”
The “green-up” phase, which will happen over the next few weeks, is the best time for growers to identify the progress and potential of their wheat crop and stand counts is a good place to start.
Eight to ten plants per foot of row still provides 85 to 90 per cent of the potential yield.
“A full stand is considered 20 plants per foot of row for 100 per cent yield potential; you could lose half your plants and still have a pretty good chance at a decent yield.”
When walking through the wheat, it’s best growers analyze how uniform the field is, and how healthy the plants look.
Over the next few weeks it’s all about growers assessing the stand and deciding on a split application of N or putting it all on at once.
“If your stand count happens to be really thick, 20 plants per foot of row, you may want to delay the application of nitrogen and starve off some of tillers. If it’s really thin and sparce you may want to apply N a little earlier to increase the tillering early, then apply the bulk of that N after stem elongation.”
As well, it’s ideal for growers to pay attention to the weather conditions as the wheat starts to elongate and canopy, as humid conditions can cause Septoria growth.
“Everything has a management point based on incidence and severity. How much disease there is and how much severe it is. It’s a matter of scouting the field and paying attention during critical stages.”
Wheat price jumping
When deciding whether to terminate a wheat crop this year, growers need to be cautious based on what they had previously contracted their wheat for.
“They have to be pretty careful. If you’re going to destroy the wheat you have to buy your way out of the contract and that’s not going to be very feasible this year. Even keeping a less than perfect stand of wheat to get you out of your contract is something that has to be considered.”
With the price of inputs also increasing, specifically looking at nitrogen, growers need to consider two things, the price of nitrogen and the quality of their wheat stand. There will be some hard decisions to make come spring about whether to keep the wheat.
“You might only want to cut back 10 to 20 pounds of nitrogen, it’s not as much as people think it is. Even though you’re spending almost twice as much on nitrogen this year, than last year. You still need to feed that crop if you’re going to keep it.”
“Fertilizer has gone up in price, but so have crop prices, so it’s a bit of an offset there, not a perfect offset, but it’s much better than $7 wheat.”
