High-yield wheat lessons from across the pond
What can we learn about high-yield wheat from the UK? Plenty, according to panelists at the recent Soybean & Small Grains Congress hosted by New York Corn & Soybean Growers Association.
The panelists were Dwight Bartle from Brown City, MI; Allan Thompson from Caledon, ON, Canada; and Brandon Blain from Mason, MI. The farmers had visited the UK and shared what they learned.
After a cool, wet spring and cool summer, “the warmth of September made a big difference in yield,” Thompson said. “Yield Enhancement Network is about what we can learn and share.”
Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) links farmers globally to promote education such as planning planting dates.
Thompson said some farmers choose to plant later; however, “we got to get that wheat started early,” he said. Doing so can result in more tillers in autumn.
“When planting corn or soybeans, how much are we paying attention to wheat?” he posed. “No one will make money with wheat.”
He said UK farmers apply fungicide at the T4 stage, not at a sooner stage, as is typical for his part of the word. The real value is in wheat’s ability to improve soil health and help suppress weeds.
“Black grass can take 20% of their field,” Thompson said of UK farmers. He added that leaf rust diseases can also take a toll on cereal crops. In the UK, small grains are a bigger focus than in the U.S.
“Everything they grow over there they have a YEN program for,” Blain said.
Bartle noted some farmers see much larger yields per acre because of their farming methods. “You’ve got to try things and look into it if you can do it or get more acres,” he added.
Thompson said looking at a YEN test plot can help farmers decide what methods and techniques they want to use elsewhere on their farms.
“Try to do all the little things right,” he said. “It’s going to be tough moving things the next few years. It’s good to share ideas so we can learn stuff.”
Blain hasn’t been farming long – just over four years – but he’s learned from his mistakes and the mistakes of others and how to fix them.
“What we learned most is bringing the poor spots up in yield, as it will bring up the average,” Bartle said.
Blain advised planning a YEN test plot in a mediocre field to see if the changes will result in a better yield.
Thompson noted that grain genetics in the UK are much better than in the U.S., which partially accounts for their higher yields, along with extensive, farmer-led testing. “In the UK, they don’t have government support” for research, he said.
Thompson believes American farmers rely too heavily on adding nitrogen for soil fertility. “You also need phosphorus, potassium and growth regulators,” he said.
Bartle said many U.S. farmers claim they lack time to apply growth regulators as they’re too busy planting in spring and trying to squeeze more acres into a short growing season.
Blain said that to increase yield in soybeans, find a variety with a shorter growing season.
“Within 24 hours of soybean harvest, drill to put wheat in the ground,” Blain said. “Apply 30 gallons per acre of fertilizer in spring at green-up. Or split the application and use 18 gallons at the second application.”
Thompson said he’s been using a growth regular in his wheat “so it doesn’t go down flat after a big rain,” he said. “The first application is dry fertilizer.”
Bartle mentioned he is trying some new wheat varieties and wants to grow better wheat, but corn and soybeans are his mainstays.
Thompson said it’s important to pay attention to the number of root tillers. “If you get growth in fall, you’ll have something good in the spring,” he advised.
Even when prices are not good, he won’t skimp on soil fertility.
“Pull back on population,” he said. “It’s vital to get fertilizer on. Pay a little more attention to sulfur deficiencies. We took it for granted for years – used to come out of the rain clouds. Get P and K to go with it or you’re wasting your time.”
Blain considers herbicides and fungicides as optional compared with nitrogen. Bartle admitted he’s “one-and-done” with nitrogen application as he doesn’t have autumn tillers.
Time management is tough on his farm compared with farmers in the UK, who typically aren’t also growing corn, which will require fields to have more nitrogen.
