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Late planting could limit spring wheat yields

Late planting could result in lower yields for spring wheat farmers in the Upper Midwest.

Jochum Wiersma, an extension small grains agronomist with the University of Minnesota, says mid-April was a pivotal time for this year’s crop.

“By mid-April, the window was already kind of closing for the most southern part of the state, and in the north we’d like to get going by then.  Luckily the weather turned around for most in the state and we had a halfway decent planting season.”

He tells Brownfield it’s too soon to know the impact on yield.

“We just know, on average, it’s going to get hotter and the crop will catch up in its development and can catch up almost half of delayed planting by the time you get to heading when grain fill starts.  But we don’t know what conditions at grain fill are.”

Wiersma says there have been years when planting has been this late and the wheat crop still produced near-record yields.

His research concludes weather conditions at grain fill and disease pressure have more influence on yield than planting date.

 

 

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