Category: Wheat School

Getting out into your wheat field on a regular basis is a necessity if you really want to give your crop the best chance possible. A regular visual inspection is a great start, but having a knowledge of what’s going on beneath the surface can help you to prevent big losses or get you to… Read More

With the supremely wet weather that has been significantly delaying corn and soybean. Another one of the impacts of this wet weather is the need to consider fungicides for your wheat crop.  Wet conditions tend to bring on disease and that can dampen your yield expectations if not handled accordingly. Phil Needham is a leading… Read More

On most years seeding earlier provides opportunities for large reward in terms of yield. Now that many farmers are racing against the calendar to try and get seeded as soon as they can, there are some considerations being made. One of the main questions that many farmers are dealing with is whether they should seed… Read More

The “big picture” is very important when it comes to evaluating plant stands, especially in winter wheat. The first place a farmer will naturally be drawn to is the visually accessible poor spots in the field. Those areas should be looked at, but always in the broader context of the entire field. If they aren’t,… Read More

Farmers looking to kickstart their winter wheat crop are very careful in timing their nitrogen application. Applying nitrogen at the wrong stage in plant development can lead to yield loss down the line. That being said, farmers have to take into consideration the difference in conditions this year vs last year. Whereas last years conditions… Read More

Establishing a seeding rate brings with it some rituals. One of those rituals can be observed when a farmer comes to pick up their seed out of a bin. Without fail, the first thing that farmer does is run his into the stream of seed and take a good hard look at it. Seeing is… Read More

Wheat midge is something that traditionally, farmers in Alberta have not been too concerned about. It was always more of a Saskatchewan issue. Over the past few years however, as we have moved to wetter springs and summers, conditions have changed enough for the pest to become a greater concern. Wheat midge is a pest… Read More

For a lot of farmers marketing wheat can be a lot like playing “Let’s Make a Deal”. You pick what’s behind door number one and hope it’s better than what’s behind doors two and three. It’s guesswork and a lot of luck. For other farmers, it feels like you’re preparing to write a thesis, with… Read More

For businesses involved in the food industry, a consistent, quality ingredient is a necessity. This is especially true for those involved in baked goods. For those businesses, wheat is a very important ingredients. For Warburtons Foods, based in the U.K., Canadian wheat is specifically what they need and want. Those needs include certain characteristics specific… Read More

Originally looked upon as “snake oil” seed treatments have become an integral part of the production system.  For the most part many farmers originally had trouble understanding the value because the action was underground.  Farmers are used to using products like herbicides that kills weeds which is very visual.  The action of seed treatments is… Read More