BISMARCK, ND – South Dakota farmers responded to some unique opportunities this past fall to increase their winter wheat acres. USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service this morning reported acreage in South Dakota was up by 22 percent.
“Growers were likely most influenced by very good winter wheat yields they experienced in 2010 and several other factors were favorable for planting winter wheat,” said Blake Vander Vorst, Ducks Unlimited regional agronomist. “Another reason was prevent plant acres were up due to the wet spring. When some of the fields dried out, the timing was right for planting winter wheat, although wet conditions in early September lowered the potential for the 2011 acreage increase.”
Producers were also encouraged to plant more acres by higher prices for winter wheat, along with the crop’s benefits of workload spreading, yield and profitability and helping to build growers’ overall wheat crop insurance yield levels.
Ducks Unlimited winter wheat variety trials treated with Stratego and Prosaro fungicide set record yields. Trial average yields for the fungicide-treated winter wheat varieties ranged from a low of 67 bushels/acre at Huron, SD to a high of 121 bushels/acre at Roseglen, ND.
North Dakota farmers increased winter wheat seeded acreage by 3 percent, Montana’s acres increased by 7 percent and Minnesota’s decreased by 48 percent.
Winter wheat acres were down the last few years due to weather conditions. Dry weather during seedling establishment for the 2008 crop caused low yields. Excess rainfall in 2009 delayed the prior crop harvest and hampered winter wheat seeding. In addition, Hard Red Spring yields for 2009 and 2010 were competitive with the below normal temperatures and protein premiums have been great for Hard Red Spring Wheat.
NASS yield data for North Dakota for the 11-year period from 1999 to 2009 reports winter wheat had a 17 percent yield advantage over spring wheat and a 1 percent to 30 percent yield advantage on any given year. Growers who work with DU commonly indicate a 20 percent to 30 percent increase over spring wheat and up to a 50 percent increase in years that are drier and warmer than normal.
DU is collaborating with Bayer CropScience on Winter Cereals: Sustainability in Action, a comprehensive effort to promote planting winter wheat in the Prairie Pothole Region. The WCSIA initiative seeks to expand the use of winter wheat as a cropping option for producers and nesting habitat for waterfowl. The initiative promotes a stewardship model for improving the agricultural productivity of farmland while retaining and improving the habitat values important to North America’s waterfowl and other wildlife. Winter cereals provide spring nesting cover as well as additional cropping options to growers.
For more information on WCSIA, visit www.wintercereals.us.
About Ducks Unlimited
With more than a million supporters, Ducks Unlimited is the world’s largest and most effective wetland and waterfowl conservation organization with more than 12 million acres conserved in North America. The United States alone has lost more than half of its original wetlands − nature’s most productive ecosystem − and continues to lose more than 80,000 wetland acres important to waterfowl each year. In Canada, up to 70 percent of wetlands have disappeared in settled areas and wetland loss continues at an alarming rate.
Additional information about Ducks Unlimited U.S. is available at: www.ducks.org
Media contacts:
Becky Jones Mahlum, (701) 355.3507, bjonesmahlum@ducks.org
About Bayer CropScience
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, nutrition and high-tech materials. Bayer CropScience AG, a subsidiary of Bayer AG with annual sales of about EUR 5.8 billion (2007), is one of the world’s leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of crop protection, non-agricultural pest control, seeds and plant biotechnology. The company offers an outstanding range of products and extensive service backup for modern, sustainable agriculture and for non-agricultural applications. Bayer CropScience has a global workforce of about 17,800 and is represented in more than 120 countries.
Further information on Bayer CropScience US is available at: www.bayercropscience.us
Media contact:
Beth Roden, (919) 549-2030, beth.roden@bayercropscience.com