Extension Small Grains Specialist Shawn Conley says the harvest window has opened for some Wisconsin winter wheat farmers.
Conley advises growers: “don’t dawdle” during dry stretches. As farmers delay harvest, test weights drop leading to dockage at the elevator.
He says he expects below-average yields, average quality, and average test weights as long as you’re timely in getting it off the ground.
We’re about 10 days ahead of schedule, allowing farmers to plant soybeans (double-crop beans eligible for crop insurance as of last year.)
If you’ve seen tire tracks in the wheat fields, it wasn’t because growers took a joy ride through the field. Conley says the moisture this summer has brought on more disease pressure in wheat, such as leaf rust or head blight. It’s meant farmers have had to get out there and apply fungicide, leaving wheel tracks. If they didn’t do that, the pathogens could lead to rejection at the grain elevator.
