It’s still too early to make a judgment on the final yields of winter wheat in the area, but low numbers are expected after widespread winterkill across Nebraska.
Casey McGreer, crop agent at Western Insurors in Ogallala, said the recent moisture might help fields recover as wheat comes out of dormancy.
“It’s no rhyme or reason,” said Mark Spurgin, a Paxton farmer and executive board member of the Nebraska Wheat Growers Association.
Spurgin said where one field would have 5 percent losses, a crop across the road could suffer 80-90 percent losses. There isn’t any one indicator on why a crop suffered from winterkill, he said, although drought conditions and fluctuating temperatures during the winter were factors.
This winter was telling for the hardiness of wheat varieties, where some succumbed to temperature fluctuations and drought. Different varieties of winter wheat winterkill differently, according to Bob Klein, crops specialist for Nebraska Extension-North Platte, and P. Stephen Baenziger, professor of agronomy.
Klein and Baenziger wrote that the southwest corner of Nebraska was the hardest hit by winterkill. They said because of higher temperatures in November, soil moisture depleted. The lack of moisture during February and March compounded the issue.
For farmers who haven’t lost much wheat to winterkill, yields can be salvaged, but other options are to replant the field or abandon it.
“It’s a little early yet to know exactly what to do,” said Tim Goding, grain manager at Ag Valley Co-op in Edison.
Spurgin said this was the first time in his memory that winterkill has been so extensive across the state.
“This year it’s places where you think wouldn’t be hit,” he said.
But that’s the fun part of farming, too — dealing with some of the surprises, he said. The Panhandle wasn’t hit as hard.
Farmers will likely have insured crops with the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation and possibly a local organization, McGreer said, which covers crops in the event of peril from Mother Nature.
Source - http://www.nptelegraph.com/
