Indiana wheat crop looks great, Purdue expert says
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As Purdue University wheat experts traveled the state, they took notice of the winter wheat crop, and Herb Ohm said the wheat stands look great and have come through winter very nice.
“I saw a little bit of yellowing earlier, but I think a lot of that was due to low, wet areas in the field and cold weather,” Ohm said. “Now that it has warmed up a little bit and farmers have top dressed their wheat, it’s got a nice deep green color and looks healthy.”
Wheat damage due to the recent blast of cold weather has been a concern for Hoosier growers, but Ohm said he doesn’t believe it’s been cold enough for a long enough period of time for damage to occur.
“It would need to get down to 26 or 27 degrees for damage to occur,” he said. “Last night we were suppose to get down to 29 degrees, but if the wheat hasn’t started jointing yet, then it should be fine.”
From a disease standpoint, Ohm said it’s still too early to know anything about what the disease pressure might be later in the season, but he advises farmers to keep checking their fields.
“Look for any kind of disease symptoms like mildew and, particularly, Septoria, and leaf and glume blotch, which will show tan to black spots and lesions on the leaves,” Ohm said. “That’s something to keep an eye on.
“It’s too early to determine if Fusarium head blight or scab will be a problem, but as we get warm and humid or rainy weather in April and May, it could be significant.”
The 2009 winter wheat acreage seeded last fall is estimated at 470,000 acres, 19 percent fewer than the 580,000 acres seeded a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s March 31 Prospective Plantings Report. Ohm and Ellsworth Christmas, a fellow Purdue agronomist, believe the wheat acreage is down this year because corn and soybeans were late to come out of the fields last fall. They also believe that the high price of nitrogen fertilizers played a role in the decrease of wheat acres.
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