By Dennis Pennington
Variety Selection
Selecting what variety of wheat to plant is one of the most important decisions a grower will make. It sets the bar for yield potential of the crop. High yielding varieties with disease resistance should be the primary criteria when selecting varieties. Growers should consult the Michigan State University (MSU) Wheat Performance Trial Reports for a scientifically based, non-biased evaluation of yield, disease resistance and grain quality performance of about 50-60 commercially available wheat varieties. In addition, adaptation to local growing conditions should also be considered.
Variety selection is best made using at least three years of data. Varieties selected using data across all locations will likely perform well under a wide range of conditions. Although, performance of a given variety will vary based on testing location. In selecting varieties for a specific location, it is important to identify varieties that perform well near the location where the variety will be grown. Selecting and planting two or more varieties is recommended. As an example, planting varieties that differ in flowering date can allow for staggering of management applications, specifically, fungicides to control Fusarium head blight.
New This Year
Poor falling number has been a problem in three out of the last four years. Falling number measures the integrity of starch in the kernels. Ideally, milling quality wheat should have a falling number of 300 or higher. There are two known causes for low falling number: preharvest sprout and late maturity alpha-amylase activity. Preharvest sprout is caused by frequent rainfall at harvest after grain moisture has dried below 20%. Late maturity alpha-amylase activity is caused by cool temperatures between the soft and hard dough stages of development. To address this, varieties entered in the MSU Wheat Performance Trials are being tested for falling number. Spikes were sampled from two replicates of the Ingham County site for falling number. Spikes were dried five days and then subjected to misting in the greenhouse for three days. Whole meal flour was milled from misted grain using a coffee grinder. Falling number was then evaluated in two technical replicates on each biological replicate. That data is reported in Table 3 of the report.
Most people believe that falling number is generally a white wheat problem, but from the data one can see that after three days of rain, even red wheat can suffer from low falling number. Since this has become such a major problem for Michigan wheat growers, a series of research projects have been initiated to learn more about the effect of rain events on falling number, as well as identify varieties that have some level of tolerance. More research is needed to gain a better understanding of what happens in the field and figure out ways to manage it. That is why the Michigan Wheat Program is investing in this research.
Wheat Season Summary
Very little wheat in Michigan was planted early in fall of 2023. In most regions, wheat planting was delayed due to a delay in soybean maturity. There was a short period in mid-late September when planting conditions were good. After that, persistent rainfall made it difficult for some to complete all their winter wheat planting. In fact, acres planted in Michigan dropped to 420,000 acres.
Overwintering conditions were favorable across the region with excellent winter survival through spring 2024. Dormancy was broken early in 2024 with some areas breaking dormancy 30 days ahead of 2023. Despite breaking dormancy early, many opted to delay nitrogen applications due to the potential risk for nitrogen loss. However, conditions remained mild and those fields that received earlier than normal nitrogen and sulfur applications greened up quickly. As spring progressed, temperatures remained cool along with persistent rainfall, resulting in some nitrogen applications being delayed well into stem elongation. Herbicide applications were also delayed resulting in significant bluegrass and chickweed pressure in some fields.
Disease levels remained relatively low early in the growing season; however, as fields approached flag leaf, stripe rust began to move across the Great Lakes region, resulting in some growers needing to apply a fungicide after T2 (flag leaf) and before T3 (anthesis). Many opted to apply a T3 for both stripe rust and fusarium head blight protection. Powdery mildew, septoria and leaf rust were also being found in fields as the season progressed.
Some fields in the regions saw high levels of cereal leaf beetle populations and feeding requiring control. High levels of beneficial insects were being found in fields across the region. Despite reports of armyworm larvae in some fields, populations and feeding remained low overall.
Crop quality began to be very high, with no reports of fusarium head blight (vomitoxin). Frequent rainfall near harvest caused some problems with preharvest sprout. There were reports of falling number below 225 from some areas of the state. Other areas were above 300. Test weights varied widely. Harvest operations started about 10 days early in most areas of the state.
Source : msu.edu