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Wheat offers value in a variety of ways

A west-central Minnesota farmer is growing seed wheat because he says the crop provides value in a multitude of ways.

Scott Lee grows corn, soybeans and small grains north of Benson, where he also operates a seed business and custom seed cleaning plant.

Despite low prices and expectations of fewer acres, Lee says he’s planting spring wheat because there are still profit opportunities in his area.

“For the livestock producers that utilize the straw for bedding or for feed ingredients.  Some people are using (wheat) because they have land they want to tile later on this year and they can get a better deal from their tiler if they can go in there in August and do the pattern tiling.”

He says adding wheat to a crop rotation can also deter resistant weeds.

“Other guys are looking at ways to break their rotation to get away from some of these RoundUp-resistant weeds that have become a problem in the last couple of years.”

Lee says most of his seed wheat production fields have been planted, but is waiting for conditions to dry before finishing.

The USDA Prospective Plantings report pegs spring wheat acres in Minnesota at 1.29 million, down 20,000 from last year.

 

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