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NW Washington | An old timer once told me that a poor crop of winter wheat was better than a good crop of spring wheat. He was right.
I would guess that spring wheat yields are about 2/3 to 3/4 of winter wheat yields on dry land fields. A lot depends on the spring weather. Spring wheat is also more prone to insect and disease problems. The irrigated guys seem to do better with their spring wheat yields.
Dryland soft white winter wheat yields in the Palouse region of north Idaho and eastern Washington range from over 100 bu/ac down to 30/40 bu/ac depending on how much rainfall the area gets. Rainfall patterns change quite a lot over the region from about 10 inches to over 22 inches per year. They have grown white wheat for many years but when they try to grow hard red wheat they high yielding areas have problems getting the protein high enough to make grade. The low rainfall areas are usually on a wheat fallow rotation. The irrigated farmers in south Idaho and the Columiba basin in Washington grow wheat just for a rotation crop so they can grow something like potatoes or sugar beets or some other money making crop. They get great 100 bu/ac plus yields but probably still lose money. | |
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Wheat seed rate?
