Wheat crop holds promise

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

by SUSAN MANN

“There are some wheat fields out there that are probably as good as I’ve ever seen them,” he told Better Farming Wednesday.

But Johnson says he’s seeing more virus problems this year than he’s ever seen in his 23- year career. In some fields with two specific white wheat varieties, Superior and Ashley, there is very severe injury. “We definitely have symptomology and infection levels that I’m not used to seeing.”

The cool weather in May has led to more problems this year. Virus problems are also associated with early planting.

Crop growth was quite a bit above normal up until May 1. Some cool weeks after that slowed growth down. Now it’s two to three days ahead of normal.

An interesting development this year is the divergence of the crop into two camps – early and late-planted wheat. The early-planted wheat, which went into the ground before Oct.1 and possibly up to Oct. 4, looked awesome all along with the exception of fields hit by viruses.

“It just continues to look like some of the best wheat I have ever seen in my career,” Johnson says.

About 40 per cent of the crop was planted early. In this crop the head size looks good, but it’s still too early to tell about pollination and kernel set. “In terms of size of the head, I’m quite pleased with the length of the head in most fields,” he says.

Later planted wheat struggled through much of the spring due to the long extended winter and cool, wet fall weather after Oct. 10. During the last two to three weeks it has come along and is looking okay now. “The yield potential on that later planted wheat is average at best.”

It’s a different story for the early-planted wheat. Ontario could break the previous provincial yield record of 85.5 bushels per acres set in 2006 when a lot of the crop was planted early. But Johnson says he’s not holding his breath for that to happen. He will be disappointed if Ontario doesn’t break 80 bushels per acre as a provincial average because the crop generally looks good.

Armyworm has been particularly severe in some fields in Essex County. In at least one field, armyworm stripped all the leaves. “There’s nothing left but stalks and heads,” Johnson says. This year there are a little higher levels of armyworm than there are during a normal year. But it’s not devastating. Growers need to scout their fields and control them if armyworms are at threshold levels.

With lots of freezing temperatures throughout the spring, Johnson says he has seen more cold temperature injury on wheat leaves in more fields and at higher levels than normal. That’s lead to more physiological fleck, which is like sunburn on the leaves.

Farmers should continue to be vigilant in watching for fusarium. Three to four weeks after heading, farmers should be checking their crop. If they’re seeing a lot of fusarium-damaged heads, they’ll want to start adjusting their combine to try and remove as many damaged kernels as possible. BF