Farms.com Home   News

Wheat Scouting 101

More than 90 grain traders, government officials, reporters, millers and even a few farmers start the 2015 Wheat Quality Council’s Hard Winter Evaluation Tour today. Over the next three days, they will canvass the state’s wheat crop from Manhattan to Colby to Wichita and back again. Along the way, they will stop every 15 miles or so to estimate yields in wheat fields on their routes. At the end, the results will be compiled into a yield estimate average for the Kansas hard red winter wheat crop.
 
But, you do not have to be on the tour to scout wheat fields and make your own estimates. To help, we have compiled the steps participants will use to estimate yields so you too can participate. Justin Knopf, wheat farmer in Saline County, provided some helpful hints he and other farmers use when evaluating their fields.
 
What You Need:
  •  
  • One yard stick (a ruler will work in a pinch).
  • One writing utensil and notepad.
  • One calculator (the one on the phone will suffice).
  • The wheat yield formula (see below in the story).
Optional:
 
  • A pocket knife to slice open wheat in the boot stage to examine the wheat head.
  • The KWYC (Kanas Wheat Yield Calculator) app, downloaded onto your smart phone.
  • A camera to capture an overall view of the wheat field (the one on the phone is fine).
 
How to Estimate Wheat Yield and Conditions:
 
Step 1: Find a wheat field. If you are not a farmer or landowner, call a farmer friend or the Kansas Wheat Commission. Above all else, be respectful of other people’s property.
 
Wheat Tour Tip: Do not enter a fenced field, just as you would not enter a fenced yard in town.
 
Step 2: Pick your scouting spot. Knopf suggested going further out in the field than the first few rows, called end rows. This is where equipment often overlaps and farmers load out their trucks near field entrances, both of which can affect tiller count.
 
wheat, Kansas Wheat, Wheat Quality Tour
 
Step 3: Observe general field conditions. Do you see weeds? Does the field have an odd color (yellow or blue)? Is the wheat stand uniform or are there bare patches in the field? How thick or thin is the canopy (where the leaves from one row touch the other, same as in a forest where the trees touch each other)?
 
Wheat Tour Tip: Old farmer’s scouting trick: Throw a hat into the field. If the wheat holds it up, it is generally a good, thick stand. Watch the wind!
 
Wheat Tour Tip: Color can be an indicator stress, which will reduce yield. A yellow cast can indicate a lack of nitrogen or drought stress. A blue cast indicates drought or heat stress.
 
Wheat Tour Tip: Yellowed leaves at the bottom of the plant are not necessarily indicative of reduced yield. But, yellow patches on the upper leaves with red spots (pustules) indicate stripe rust .
 
wheat, Kansas Wheat, Wheat Quality Tour
 
wheat, Kansas Wheat, Wheat Quality Tour
 
Wheat Tour Tip: Knopf said to pay close attention to the flag leaf, which must provide the photosynthesis to fill the wheat head with grain. If disease is present or the flag leaf is curled up, the wheat head will likely not fill to its maximum potential.
 
Step 4: Measure the height of the wheat plant. By this time of year, wheat should be well above your knee.
 
wheat, Kansas Wheat, Wheat Quality Tour
 
Wheat Tour Tip: If the wheat is not taller than the rusty can you found in the ditch, it is abnormally short and will be very difficult to harvest.
 
Step 5: Examine the wheat head.
 
If the wheat head has emerged, count the rows of spikelets (covering of the wheat kernels). Knopf said he generally looks for 12 or more in a row for a good stand of wheat. Do not count the bottom or the top. This is the maximum potential the wheat plant has at this point of growth.
 
wheat, Kansas Wheat, Wheat Quality Tour
 
If the wheat head has not emerged, slide your hand up the stalk. You will feel a bump, called a node, toward the middle third of the plant. Use your pocket knife to slice open the stalk just above that node and you should find the immature wheat head.
 
wheat, Kansas Wheat, Wheat Quality Tour
 
The wheat head should look green, not white, and be soft, but not mushy. 
 
wheat, Kansas Wheat, Wheat Quality Tour
 
While the above steps help gauge the general health and conditions of the wheat field, the next steps will be how you formulated projected yield. So, get out your handy yardstick!
 
Step 6: Measure the distance between wheat rows in inches. Record on your yardstick or notepad.
 
Wheat Tour Tip: The most common spacing between rows is 7.5 or 10 inches.
 
Step 7: Count the number of stalks (tillers) per foot (12 inches). Record.
 
Farmer Tip: Officially, for the Wheat Tour, all stalks should be counted. However, Knopf said that secondary tillers (short ones that will feel more like a blade of grass than solid like a tree trunk) are unlikely to mature in time to produce grain at harvest. You decide.
 
wheat, Kansas Wheat, Wheat Quality Tour
 
Step 8: Calculate yield, using one of two methods.
Click here to see more...

Trending Video

Market to Market

Video: Market to Market

Milton makes landfall with high winds, storm surge and power outages. The increasing cost to fight a decades-old disease in the hog industry. And commodity market analysis with Naomi Blohm.