WHEAT U --- 2017

      There was a good attendance and age diversity at the Wheat U in Spokane, Dec. 5th.   All the presentations will be available on < Wheat U > in the near future.  An earlier Conference in Kansas can also be viewed on that website.   I'll limit my comments to two parts of the agenda that most interested me, --the luncheon speaker,  Dr. Pete Berry (Crop Physiologist for ADAS,UK Ltd.), and Cat Solois' (McGregor's Director of Research & Technology) presentations.
        Berry:   Dr. Berry's presentation described the Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) which is part of the ADAS (stands for ??).  The YEN links producers that share information on how to enhance yields.  They have a competition that is broke down to several categories that include soil capability.  Fields are ≥5ac, with the average size ≈10ac.  Many of the participants have relative small acreages, or small fields for their farm operation.  Out-of-the-box ideas are encouraged.  Berry shared a lengthy list of ideas, some sounding ridiculous.
        I didn't have much interest in this presentation until it dawned on me that this concept may be useful to gain experience and ideas on cover crops, --how to use plant cultivars to replace commercial inputs.  The idea here would be to solicit participation of farmers around the region to devote a small acreage to a project where all plant nutrients and weed control would be done through the use of plant cultivars, whether they be cash crop or cover crop cultivars.  The only rule for a participant would be that no applications of commercial inputs would be allowed on that acreage.  A business plan with more detail of the project needs to be worked up along with rewards/awards that participants may expect.  This is an idea in early development stage.
        Solois:  Cat started by showing the locations around the region of McGregor plants.  She stated that they have 2 years of data taken in fields they service to baseline soil fertility levels.  These are taken in three locations within each field indicating high-medium-low management areas.  In the midwest, when you pull up a fertility map of a region it is very detailed about what the usage is and what element is short.  In the west it is a grey page with no data.  Her general topic was plant nutrition.  She talked about factors that effect the efficiency of plants taking in various nutritional elements like, N-P-K.  She also showed that the Inland Pacific Northwest (IPNW) soils were very complex and pH varied dramatically in short distances.  Inadequate levels of K are showing up in low and medium management areas.  These are basically the eroded areas.  Taking core samples need to be done with care about location.  An example she shared, was where one core from a low management area included in a 10 core sample from a high management area moved the K from a high level to a marginal level.
      All in all, a day well spent.  These events are great for exchanging information with like minded people, along with the event presentations.