DON’T CALL ME AN EXPERT 
This is just the way I do things

Including Wheat in a Corn/Bean Rotation, Leading a Grain Group

By Bob Worth

A little background about me and my family: we have a family farm in Lincoln County, Minnesota, by the beautiful little town called Lake Benton (and yes it does have a lake near the town) about 25 miles east of Brookings, S.D. My wife Gail and I farm 1,300 acres of soybeans, corn and spring wheat.  We also have a son Jon and daughter-in-law Shanna farming about 1,100 acres. We farm separate but share equipment and labor so it is a good fit.

We also custom farm another 600 acres, so we are busy.  Our farming operation did have livestock in it about 10 years ago, but we decided to quit that and focus strictly on grain. We use only part-time help at harvest as both of our wives work off the farm: Gail works at the Lincoln County FSA office as the price support person and Shanna is the librarian in Lake Benton. They both are very busy but help all they can on the farm too. Gail is the accountant for the operation with help from Shanna.

We all have our jobs with the farm as I do the cash flows and ‘PR work’ (more on that later) and Jon is the grain marketer.  Our operation has gone much better since he has taken over that very important part.  Like a lot of farmers, it seems like I fall in love with my grain and find it hard to sell it…

Lincoln County has the Buffalo Ridge going through it, which is a ridge of hills with an elevation of 1,600-1,700 feet above sea level. It’s situated well for generating wind power – we have 600 wind turbines in Lincoln county and more being built all the time.   The higher elevation also makes farming a challenge. Our ground and air stays colder in the spring, and also the frost can come earlier than we like. So we have to plant earlier hybrids of corn and soybeans.  We try to minimize tillage, but we’re not no-till.  We’ve tried no-till and some years it has seemed to work well and other years it doesn’t.  Our soil just gets too cold for it to work for us.

We always planted a little spring wheat for the straw when we had livestock, not very much though, as the yield was not very good.  We attribute it to chemical carryover from the herbicides we used to apply in soybeans, primarily Pursuit. This all changed when the Round-Up Ready soybean technology came into our operation.  The wheat yields went from 35-40 bu/ac to 60-70 bu/ac, and if we get 55 bushels, we think we had a crop failure. We plant a fair amount of AgriPro varieries, one of our current favorites is Knudson, and we grow a few publics too. Again, the only reason we can figure that our wheat yields have improved is that we have no carryover from the previous chemicals we used to use in soybeans.

Benefits of wheat in rotation
So spring wheat acres have grown on our farm and also a lot of my neighbors are back planting wheat and also having the same success as we are. There’s benefits to including wheat in a rotation with corn and beans. (Our rotation is usually beans-wheat-corn then back to beans). The cash flow is nice in August when we have payments due.  There’s some N benefit to wheat following beans, and some weed control advantages from the aspect of following Roundup-Ready beans. other rotational synergies? Having that third crop in there also helps interrupt the risk of extended diapause with corn rootworm.

Another plus with wheat is that the people with hog operations are looking for places to haul manure, and it can be spread earlier on harvested wheat stubble. There’s a nutrient analysis so you know exactly what the fertility levels are in the manure that’s going on, and it’s a lot cheaper than commercial fertilizer. It’s a win-win for both the wheat grower and the hog producer.

We are planting 300 acres of wheat this year and possibly planting more in 2008. It cash flows very good at $5.00 per bushel and there is also a huge demand for the straw – Jon and I have a waiting list for people that want straw. We sell the straw in the windrow so the farmers come and bale it themselves so no labor for us. We also have 1,100 acres of soybeans between us and also 1,000 acres of corn. Corn probably cash flows better than the other two crops, BUT the labor and expense of harvest is a lot higher.  Especially if we have to dry all our corn, which we normally do on the ridge as our growing season is shorter. 

You hear of some guys going all beans, or this year, talk of guys going all corn, or further west, it might be all wheat.  But there’s something to be said about good crop rotations. It helps with the production risk and the planting/harvesting work load. With the risk of SCN in soybeans, corn rootworm, and scab in wheat, all three crops have their Achilles heel, but rotation does help manage all of these and as long as we can make a profit growing the three crops we will continue to do so.

“What is your pay to do this?”
Now going back to the part that I was the ‘PR person’ of this farming operation. I have been actively involved with the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association, serving as president since June of 2005.  I am on the road a lot promoting soybeans and the policy efforts of the organization.  I consider myself one of the luckiest guys around to be able to go and speak to farmers and anyone who will listen about what is going on in the industry.

Sure, it can be a challenge once in a while, just when you think you have some time at home to haul grain or do something with friends or family you get called to a meeting. People come up to me and ask “what is your pay to do this?” and I just laugh and say with pride I am a volunteer and I love what I do.

I don’t view my involvement with the MSGA as taking away from my farming operation, but an investment in it.  There’s an intangible benefit of networking with other growers and gaining insight and information about the issues that affect our farms.  I’ve been fortunate to personally get to know the lawmakers from not only Minnesota but in Washington D.C., with the goal to make the Minnesota soybean farmer more profitable and also to have our farms and rural areas a better place to live.

To do this you have to have an understanding wife and a son that will take up the work that I don’t do. My wife she has been wonderful to let me do this and has been a great help on so many levels, right down to my wardrobe.  Like a lot of farmers my closet was pretty limited, I had one sports coat and maybe three dress shirts. Now I have six sports coats and a suit and I couldn’t tell you how many dress shirts that need ironing.  I can’t say this enough: If it weren’t for such a good family I wouldn’t have been able to serve as president of the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association.

My term with the MSGA ends in June, and what a great time to settle back into blue jeans and full tilt farming. With all that’s going on with renewable fuels, it’s an exciting time to be in agriculture.

Worth can be reached by email at worthfarms@hotmail.com.