RealAg LIVE! with Sheri Strydhorst on wheat and barley seeding success

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Whether for feed or food, in a dry season or wet, successful wheat and barley establishment is unique to the crop type.

Plenty of farmers are swapping some acres into barley this year, and that added rotation diversity is a good thing says today’s RealAg LIVE! guest, Sheri Strydhost, agronomy research specialist with Alberta Wheat & Barley Commissions. But, there are certainly some agronomic considerations unique to each crop that growers will want to consider.

RealAg LIVE! streams every weekday at 3 pm E on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter!

SUMMARY

  • Sheri’s first growing season with Alberta Wheat & Barley Commissions as the agronomy research specialist
  • She’ll be coordinating the regional variety trials and evaluating and shaping research
  • Extension, too
  • Managing Plot2Farm trials
  • Getting farmers to take small plot research to field scale
  • How do we accurately test things across a field? And get meaningful results?
  • The research that happens is made public, too
  • Two sites last year, SEVEN this year
  • And connect farmers to other farmers who hosted some of these trials
  • Huge regional reach for Plot2Farm (in-crop N! PGRs!)
  • Looking at barley, acres could be up this year
  • Diverse rotation is so good, thanks
  • Markets are supporting barley, which is good
  • Make sure you’re sourcing legal seed, please
  • First-time growers might be getting excited about an early start (especially to make malt)
  • Barley is more sensitive to cool weather than wheat and some pulses
  • What about planting rate? Bump those rates for earlier maturity
  • Dry conditions!
  • What about cutting back on N? In dry conditions, split app N can be good risk management
  • Early N contributes more to yield, later bumps protein
  • Remember too, the safe placement of fertilizer in the seed row (salt effect)
  • Urea or phos max rates, depends on row space seed bed utilization, and soil texture
  • It’s so important to gauge the per cent emergence (plants per foot of row seeded compared  to what became viable plants)
  • Check three weeks after seeding; you could make a reminder in your phone or mark it on the calendar
  • Get digging! Dead seeds, dry/ungerminated seeds, seedling blights, depth, etc
  • Practice makes perfect, too. So do it every year
  • Feed prices are good too, so don’t skimp on seed
  • PGRs Manipulator and Moddus — talk to your buyer before you use Manipulator on barley
  • Dry conditions means Mother Nature is your PGR
  • Weed control still matters, maybe more in a dry year (they loooove water)
  • Manage those herbicide resistant weeds, too
  • Get down there and see what’s at the soil level
  • There will be wheat midge hot spots this year — please have your VB (varietal blend) chosen by now and seed early
  • Then scout, scout, scout at flowering (and at night)
  • Scout even if you do seed a VB variety
  • The next four weeks of weather will decide what management will matter most this year
  • Be safe, rest, and scout

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RealAg LIVE! (view all)Season 2 (2021) Episode 9
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