While many wheat growers were facing drought this spring, the eastern half of the Wheat Belt was dealing with abundant rain and flooding, says Andrew Easton, UPL territory sales manager, who covers northern Minnesota and eastern North Dakota. That led to many growers sowing spring wheat later than normal.
“Right now, it’s mid-June and I’m visiting retailers and growers throughout my area, and we are really seeing the impacts that the early spring rain, snow and the resulting flooding had on fields,” Easton said.
“What the flooding did to [wheat growers] this year was it delayed our planting. And it caused us to seed in less-than-ideal conditions,” Easton says. “Anytime we move away from a seeding date, at the end of April or beginning of May, we start losing yield. There was a lot of wheat that didn't get planted until the very end of May. That's far less than ideal.”
The second factor is emergence problems in those fields planted in less-than-ideal soil conditions. “There were a lot of farmers who were mudding the crop in and that always poses a challenge because then we get poor stands. And we got more rain afterwards as well,” Easton says.
Heavy, saturated soils and flooding can lead to soil crusting in fields, impeding the crop’s ability to break through the soil surface. Easton says he heard of many growers using rotary hoes to provide light tillage in fields to break that crust to allow the wheat to come up. Emergence and early stand issues really impact the crops’ ability to yield, and also the quality of the wheat throughout the season.
Wet Fields Increases Disease, Insects and Weeds
Now that the crop is in, Easton advises growers to consider two main aspects of their production: herbicide timing and applying a preventative fungicide to prevent disease. As a technical services manager, Easton is visits customer fields and advises on treatment solutions.
“When we have these wet conditions early in the season, it’s the right environment for disease to develop, even if we don’t see it right now,” Easton says. “It’s going to be really important to use a preventative fungicide like EVITO® that works really well on rust and tan spot.”
He advises growers to consider tank mixing EVITO fungicide with their herbicide application.
"It's important to utilize that pass to put in a preventative fungicide so that in the next couple of weeks, you don't have to go back out there and try to treat some sort of a disease that set in,” he adds. “Using EVITO fungicide with EVEREST® 3.0 or BATALIUM® herbicide is really a two for one application. And it ultimately helps a farmer maximize his bottom line by not having to go out there twice, and the cost of fuel and labor.”
In spring wheat, UPL product, LAMBDA-CY insecticide is effective against insects in spring wheat. “Some years are worse than other for insects. But that's definitely something that should be taken a look at,” he says.
“Also, not too long from now, probably about mid-July, we're going to spray for head scab with TEBUZOL® 3.6F fungicide, with the active ingredient tebuconazole. It’s a very affordable and efficient way to take care of head scab in your spring wheat. So once that wheat starts throwing heads and we’re getting into that flower season, we want to be spray the crop with TEBUZOL 3.6 fungicide to keep that weed as clean as possible from head scab.”
Growers Committed to Spring Wheat Acres
Despite the weather challenges, Easton observed that growers seemed resiliently committed to their spring wheat acreage this year. With strong commodity prices, Easton has noticed that growers are being diligent about protecting the wheat crop through the use of crop production inputs.
“I’ve never seen wheat planted this late in the year, but the resiliency of these farmers wanting to get their spring wheat in and, and really cash in on those strong commodities is really impressive.”
Read more about the 2022 wheat Insights From the Field:
