Best practices for wheat

ATLANTA, Ind. — Beck’s agronomists shared best practices for growing a strong, healthy wheat crop using Practical Farm Research data during an episode of “The Dig.”

Split-applying nitrogen decreases the risk of nitrogen loss, the experts said.

“Nitrogen on wheat can be kind of tricky,” said Rob Nalley, field sales agronomist at Beck’s.

“We apply too little and we can see yield reduction, but if we apply too much — first of all there’s an environmental concern. But we can also experience some lodging. We’ll see yield reductions from that, as well.”

So, how much nitrogen should farmers add?

“University recommendations kind of vary depending on where you look, but it’s somewhere between 1.3 and 1.5 pounds of nitrogen per expected bushel of wheat,” Nalley said.

Sulfur is also important for wheat as a secondary macro nutrient. Plants can really benefit from this early in the season, around the time of the first nitrogen application, the agronomist suggested.

Nalley also discussed fungicide applications.

“Fungicide is very important for wheat,” he said. “For me, the No. 1 pathogen we want to protect from is fusarium head blight, formally known as head scab.

“There are four PFR proven fungicides that we apply at the Feekes 10.5.1 stage. That’s the early flowering stage.”