The 2017 crop year was a record breaker. Never in my lifetime have we received 20.4" of rain/snow in a crop year at our SJ/Ewan operation. Also, we have had near record or record breaking temperatures for the 2017 crop year. That sounds like it should be a banner year with plenty of moisture and heat. Well, not for us. Timing of the rain and heat trumped everything. The harvest of 2017 was mostly disappointing.
WINTER WHEAT: (Brundage 96) All of our winter wheat was seeded on pea ground (no ww on fallow ground). The ground was dry, which meant we didn't consider seeding until after Oct. 1st, --a bad decision this year. October was extremely wet all month. Lesson learned?! --Seed in September regardless of dryness, and seed it deep (1.5-2") so it takes a significant rain to start it. Had we done that, the Thornton winter wheat crop would have probably been 100-110% of average, and the less forgiving SJ/Ewan area winter wheat crop would have been in the range of 90-100% of average. As it was, Thornton was ~90% of average, and SJ/Ewan was ~50% of average.
SPRING WHEAT (DNS): (Glee) The season started out with great soil moisture, and timely seeding, that developed into a very nice looking stand of spring wheat. The unusual heat wave (~ three weeks ± 100 degrees) damaged the bloom and seed development. Our quality was remarkably good, --the meshes were just blanked out. Test weight was good and shriveled kernels were few, and protein was just under 14%. Our yield was ~ 90% of average.
SPRING CANOLA: (hyCLASS 930 rr) The crop was timely seeded. The plant population was good. The crop was growing well, but the heat hit in early bloom (for 2016 trials, we had nearly a month of bloom). The high heat over the extended time did not let a re-bloom establish pods. In fact the spring canola continued to bloom through the beginning of 2018, although no pods set. The yield was ~ 30-40% of what we expected. Any other field would have probably done better this particular year. This field was our poorest soil, lowest elevation and all faced S and SW. It took the brunt of the heat. We are not deterred. We think that spring canola is going to be a great alternative to winter wheat. Also, it appears that we will be able to cut spring canola with the stripper header which is a big plus. This field went into winter in great shape, --good residue, standing tall with most of the plants still living. The tall canola stubble, although not thick like wheat stubble, is great for reducing wind velocity near the soil surface, and snow catch. Winter of 2017-2018 was not a big snow year like 2016 but we haven't seen any drifting in that field compared to mowed or tilled fields.
I haven't sorted out the data for any comparison between CF/winter wheat and CC/winter wheat, or our canola on ground that has had a cover crop and ground that has never had a cover crop. I may include that as an update to this post or it may take a post of it's own.
Your harvest updates are my favorite posts of your blog. Seems like every year there is something different to learn. Like you I was a little disappointed, especially with the spring crop. Here it was more of an issue of getting the spring crop in timely, as being late because of all the moisture really limited the growing season compounded by the hot weather. I agree with you on seeding early except that in my opinion I would not attempt to go any deeper than normal. If the moisture comes really late it will run out of time to emerge or not come at all. I asked a long time no tiller here if he had every had issue with light rains sprouting a crop that then dried up. He had often worried about it but never had a crop failure.
ReplyDeleteYes, my reply to your question would have been the same. It's natural to worry when seeding into dry ground. The fall of 2016 was a mental reversion back to old habits. The CrossSlot is a game changer that we haven't fully internalized. It is the best risk management tool I've ever bought. It reduces our risks associated with residue and light rains. We can emerge a crop from a safer (deeper) depth than any other drill. We have no worries of crusting. We can plant deep enough where 0.3" or rain will not start a crop and leave it in the dry, as was the possibility in Sept. 2016. We just failed to have the foresight, and capitalize on the advantage it gave us.
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