New study shows highly managed wheat yields more

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Farmers considering their winter wheat crops, take note: The more work you do, the more yield you'll likely see at harvest time, a researcher at Southern Illinois University said last week.

Sounds like common sense, but SIU wheat scientist Bryan Young said Illinois wheat farmers usually deliver a "moderate" amount of maintenance when their crops are in the ground.

Raising that level to what Young describes as a "high" level of maintenance -- adding a third round of fertilizer and the use of insecticides and fungicides -- will increase yields dramatically, according to preliminary results from Young's latest study.

The agronomist planted 20-by-40-foot lots of several varieties of wheat on SIU's campus in October, then tended them under what he called low-, moderate- and high-intensity management programs.

The low-level crop received some fertilizer on planting in October, more in early February and then nothing until harvest in June, Young said.

The moderate-level crop got more fertilizer per acre, and the second round came in late March instead of in February, Young said.

In addition, seeds went about one inch deeper into the ground and at a slightly higher density than in the low-managed crop, he said.

The highly managed crop repeated the conditions of the moderate one, and received a third round of fertilizer -- in the spring, after rains washed off the winter round, he said. It also received insecticides and fungicides, two things that were absent in the other crops, he said.

The result: The low-managed crop of the Pioneer 25437 variety yielded 48 bushels an acre; the moderate-level crop yielded 56 bushels an acre, and the highly managed crop yielded 74 bushels an acre, Young said. Other varieties showed more or less the same thing, he said.

Costs went up but so did profits, Young said. The low-level crop produced $91.13 an acre in profit; the moderate crop, $98.99 and the high-maintenance crop, $127.88, he said.

Few horses drinking

Jim Quinton, a commodities broker and independent consultant to wheat growers, said the results can be useful for farmers. "That's a big payoff for getting your act together," said Quinton, of Carlinville, Ill.

High-level crop management isn't new. Researchers in Kentucky, in particular, have made much progress on the subject since the national wheat market was deregulated in 1995, Quinton said.

But Illinois farmers haven't adopted the techniques in big numbers, and this kind of data might help change that, he said. Or not.

"I've led a lot of horses to water, but I haven't seen them drink," he said.