Weather is a central topic in many coffee shop conversations, plays a large role in the success or failure of a crop, and is outside of a wheat grower’s control. But that doesn’t mean farmers can’t at least try and out-maneuver Mother Nature.
Dr. Brian Beres, senior research scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) at Lethbridge, has been working with his team for over a decade to study a simple production practice change that has the potential to temper the heat of summer and the negative effect that it has on wheat crop yields.
Ultra early seeding of wheat doesn’t require special equipment or genetics, says Beres in this episode of RealAgriculture’s Wheat School. The idea with this method of seeding is to monitor a field for soil temperature. When a grower hits what Beres’ team has coined the “soil temperature trigger” it is time to get in the field no matter what the calendar says, he says — even if it’s March.
When it comes to yield, Beres says that at minimum growers can expect to maintain their yield. Many years though will see a substantially higher yield due to the protection that the crop receives by flowering before the hottest days of summer hit. The plants also have the opportunity to benefit from increased soil moisture levels in the spring and getting a jump on the emerging weeds.
“The sweet spot is more like one to three degrees. And once it warms to that, even if it was to cool back down, doesn’t matter. You hit your soil temperature trigger, as we say, to go in and plant. And the feedback I get, almost universally, is that’s some of the best crop I’ve ever had,” says Beres.
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