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Wheat Planting Conditions
Ron O'Hanlon, President
Member, National Alliance of Independent Crop Consultants, CPCC-I Certified
The rains across the High Plains have really had a significant impact on improving the planting conditions
for the winter wheat crop. The High Plains area has been suffering from extremely droughty conditions for the
past four to five years, and even longer in some isolated areas.
Over the past few years, farmers were forced to plant into dry seedbed conditions, hoping for any kind of
moisture that would be sufficient to sprout the wheat and keep it alive until the next precipitation event,
whether that be rain or snow. Some areas were lucky with a few timely events, while other areas continued to
suffer. Wheat stands for the past few years have been sporadic, thin and drought stressed in many areas, with
wheat yields that were not profitable.
This year’s wheat planting season has gotten off on the right foot. Much of the High Plains area had rains
beginning around September 20th, and various amounts have fallen periodically ever since. In some cases,
the rainfall amounts have prevented wheat planting to occur due to the wet soil surface conditions. The wheat
drills have been rolling where the soil conditions are dry enough to plant. This should be extremely beneficial,
as the crop will now have sufficient soil moisture to sprout and survive going into the winter months. We should
see improved wheat stands that are full and filled in, rather than the sparse, thin stands that have become
quite common over the past several years.
One concern that farmers have this year is the availability of seed wheat, especially regarding the white wheats.
This past June and July, as the wheat was mature, harvest was delayed due to rains which continued to prevent
harvest in a timely manner. The white wheats have a tendency to sprout in the heads when the relative humidity
conditions are high and harvest is delayed. The conditions were ideal at harvest time for this to occur, and many
wheat fields across the area where most of the white wheat is grown had significant to devastating numbers of wheat
heads with sprouting damage. This resulted in some seed wheat shortage for this current wheat planting season.
Those farmers who do have white wheat seed will need to ensure they are planting in ideal planting conditions to
improve the chances of having a crop, as they may not get another chance to replant due to the seed shortage.
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