Consider drying out prevent plant acres with winter wheat

• Less average rainfall in September improves your chances of planting a crop. 

• Keep your crop insurance eligibility. 

Growers may not be eligible for prevent plant coverage on acres that have not been planted and harvested in at least one of the last four years. 

• Winter wheat can increase your proven wheat yields for crop insurance. 

Growers adding winter wheat to their crop mix tell DU they increased proven yields by five to 20 bushels per acre (averaged, spring and winter wheat). 

• Improve your profits. 

Farm and Ranch Business Manage-ment records show winter wheat to be one of the most profitable crops in  many areas. 

Manage prior crop residues or plant cover crop if stubble not adequate: 

• To retain snow for winter wheat survival. 

• To meet Risk Management Association and Farm Service Agency requirements for cover and crop insurance eligibility. 

• To “break the green bridge” in preventing wheat steak mosaic virus outbreaks 

More tips for growing winter wheat: 

• Plant “winter-hardy” varieties if previous crop stubbles are less-than-ideal for snow catch. 

• Make sure the combine is uniformly spreading crop straw and chaff residues to allow the drill-seeder to attain good seed-to-soil contact and avoid hair-pinning with disk openers.

• Use of  harrows is not recommended be-cause the standing stubble may be knocked down or weakened, reducing its ability to trap snow and protect the winter wheat seedlings.

• Plan to seed the winter wheat directly into residue-managed standing canola, flax, oat or barley stubble for best results during the optimal seeding period of Sept. 1-30. 

Place seed 1 to 1.5 inches deep (1 inch preferred). Seed at a rate of 1.2 to 1.5 million pure live seeds per acre. Seeding early in the time period results in a more developed winter wheat crown and a vigorous plant that will have a greater ability to survive the winter and mature early.

• Seeding winter wheat in spring wheat stubble is acceptable, but expect more disease pressure from early season tan spot. 

Prior crops that are planted early and mature early facilitate direct seeding of winter wheat at the optimal date. Early planning helps to address crop rotation concerns.

Standing stubble needs to have the  capability to trap at least 2 inches of  snow to ensure winter survival. The  standing stubble from a prior cereal or flax crop should be 8 inches tall or taller after seeding the winter wheat. A previous canola crop requires a stubble height of 12 inches. A previous crop stubble height of 12 to 16 inches optimizes winter wheat survival.

Slit seeding procedures : Cool-season grasses

Hey all- Im looking at doing a slit seed in the next few weeks. Will be going with a 90/10 TTTF/KBG mix. I'm not sure the cultivars yet, need to consult NTEP for my area (just south of Ames, IA). Does anyone have any suggestions on a KBG that works well in color/growth with any particular TTTF? I'm needing something that can handle heat and 100% full sun. I'm hoping to order this week for roughly 3500 ft (just doing the back yard). But, to my main question, what procedures does anyone have in terms of slit seeding? (blizzisu, im looking at you since you did KBG in your contractor sod a few years back) Right now top growth is at a point where I only really have to mow 1x, maybe 2x a week at 3.75". Im assuming that will shoot up once we cool down a bit and start getting some rain. jfd.lew - I live in the NE corner of Ankeny and slit seeded my backyard into an existing stand of KBG with 100% elite KBG. The reason I did this instead of a full renovation, is so my small dogs would have a place to run around. If I could do it all over again, I would have just done the full renovation even if it required me doing it one half of the lawn one year and one half the next. If you are going to all the trouble anyways, it's no more difficult and actually probably easier to just do a full renovation. PM me if you want my address to stop by and take a look at my backyard where I slit-seeded.

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