STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSES MOUTH

Duane A. Lienemann
UNL Extension Educator

             
     I have heard several farmers lament the condition of their wheat at this point and last week went out to look at several wheat fields and stopped again this week. I did find a lot of variation with and within fields. The fear was that they had some kind of disease that was stunting the wheat and killing it.  I quite honestly did not find much indication of disease and certainly not enough to hurt anything, or warrant too much worry at this juncture. What I did find however was wheat that was exhibiting the classic signs of “not enough to drink”!  Now that sounds more like something you would hear in the local watering hole, but it does apply to our pastures, hay ground and of course our wheat. And that is a worry! 
     I know that these fields are scattered across the area. Some fields are looking pretty good, some not looking good at all -- and that may be a symptom of how much moisture was available; how much snow they had; and if they got small shots or larger shots of rain – when it did rain.  It also seems to be equated to soil type (ie. heavy clay patches) and what was in the field last year.  It seems to me that the most problems are occurring in last year’s soybean fields that were planted to wheat this past fall. I should also point out that I did see some evidence of nutrient deficiency in several fields and that too may be attributable to the lack of subsoil moisture and the fragile moisture balance in that top 6 inches. It seems that whenever plants are stressed that you see all kind of abnormalities that are accentuated. You likely would not have seen this show up in this fashion with normal moisture and normal growing conditions---whatever normal is now.
     In the fields that appeared stunted, yellow and even brown-tinged, I found that on the individual plant clusters that the outside leaves have died, turned brown and are sloughing off. Now some of this could be a result of the freezes and the late snow and ice that we experienced after the wheat had come out of dormancy, which of course also put some stress on an already stressed wheat plant. I also found dry crowns with dying or dead spots, as well as shallow roots, which would indicate that there was not moisture in the lower profile to go down to and the wheat was and is living off the small parcels of moisture we got from some snow and some timely small showers. I also found some fields that are short in stature and were already shooting up a flag leaf and ready to push out a head, if it hasn’t already in some fields!
     Now, since that last visit we had the entire area receive from .30 in. to .90 inch of rain (we had about .70 in Blue Hill, where I live) and this seemed to give a new life, so to speak to some of these fields. That really showed me what we are facing. However, we have generally missed out on several opportunities for moisture ever since and we are now, right back into the same scenario.  I know that there is rain forecast in various percentages of chances for this Memorial Day weekend (which seems to be a normal happening) and for this next week.  But it also seems that these days forecasted keep moving ahead and the % chances diminish as we get closer to those “rain days”.  That does not bode well for the fields that already have stressed wheat that was or is already dying or hanging on by its last roots. It may be too late!
     That means that there are some fields that we must evaluate and determine if it will pay to leave it, or to do something else. Several options are available to a producer with a wheat crop that may be on its last legs. The one that first comes to mind is – start thinking about the economics of graze-out or haying versus harvest for grain. If harvest is not an option, a producer might turning their own cattle and benefit from saving pasture or hay, or perhaps taking in cattle and benefit from rental of those acres. I think however that swathing the wheat for hay and putting up in bales or perhaps treated as haylage may be a great option.  Others might even possibly use a combination of these options.
     Wheat planned for harvest as grain needs to produce enough bushels, given the market price, to not only cover the total cost of harvest but also have a similar or higher return per acre than grazing or haying it. So you have to guestimate what your yield could be (or not be), which is difficult at best. This could be a crap shoot. Those who plan on swathing wheat for hay need to consider the economics of graze-out versus wheat hay. Are you better off simply letting stockers or cow/calf pairs consume all the wheat, or is there more value in the bales less the cost per acre? Let’s go with a normal yield of 40 bu. of wheat which normally is equivalent to about 3,000 lbs. of forage per acre, so you could you conceivably get around three bales. At a price of let’s say $160/ton and a total cost of $20/bale (swathing, baling and hauling), a farmer could perhaps net about $180 per acre. The negative is that it will take 10-14 days to dry in many cases before baling.
     The nutritional content of wheat hay is comparable to grass hay and is usually around 8-10% protein with immature heads, 12-14% if cut before heading. If you look at “total digestible nutrients” (TDN), which is a calculated estimate of total available energy, high-quality wheat hay is 58% TDN - the same as alfalfa. As is the case with any hay, nutritional content will vary depending on when and how the hay was put up. But some wheat hay is high quality stuff and all the wheat hay I have seen is much more than simply "filler". However, there is also the risk of getting the wheat baled and having it rained on (Ha). You will also need to contact your crop insurer and FSA office.  You will also need to look at what crops you may want to put into the stubble to try to take advantage if we do actually get some moisture that is too late for the wheat crop.  You will have to consider most likely soybeans or grain sorghum or, if you are brave, a short season corn. Don’t forget that you may have issues with any chemicals used and perhaps available nitrogen. Good Luck!
The preceding information comes from the research and personal observations of the writer which may or may not reflect the views of UNL or UNL Extension. For more further information on these or other topics contact D. A. Lienemann, UNL Extension Educator for Webster County in Red Cloud, (402) 746-3417 or email to: dlienemann2@unl.edu or go to the website at: http://www.webster.unl.edu/home