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Grand Rapids, MI | OK...so let me preface this by saying I am not the expert at agronomy. (Actually I make my living now by consulting on the business mgt part of running a farm) I did manage a farm a number of years ago..and one of my first projects was to increase our lagging wheat yields. So I will share some of what I learned through that process hoping it will help you as well.
For planting depth, 1- 1 1/2 inches is optimal, go to 2" if you need to to get in moist soil. Less than 1" may result in a poorer stand if things are dry at all.
For planting rate....DO NOT think about how many pounds to plant!! Like with all other crops think population. In Michigan we would start at 1.8 million seeds early and gradually increase to 2.5 million at the end of the planting window (if we ended up planting this late) The site posted above seems to indcate lower populations in your area, which could have to do with your location and climate. So take my advice on the population, but find out more for yourself on the reccommended population.
If you are growing your own seed, treat it like a seed grower would. We never planted "bin run" but we would keep back the harvest of a certified seed, harvested at optimal moisture, etc. and segregate the varieties. They were then germ tested and seed counted. Then they were brought to be professionally cleaned and treated. Today just make sure you can legally save the seed, I think you still can with most wheat, only for your own use of course.
Also be sure you have a good drill to place the seed. The old JD8300 drills had to be the worst, just bouncing over the ground with no guage wheel and not really much downpressure.
For fertilizer in the fall, we would put down about 20# of actual N, and any P and K needs shown on the soil test.
While you are at it, think of finding a scout to professionally scout you wheat next spring. What we found is that the critical time for wheat diseases was right during out corn/soy planting season, so you can imagine how well we were doing getting our wheat scouted. The professional scout was WELL worth the $ for us.
With all this we were able to get our yeilds to 80-100 bushels in good years on our good soil. The really light soils were probably 60Bu/ac or so. In the best years fields hit 100-120 (rare this high) Hope this helps | |
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Wheat growing tips ?
