Intensive Wheat Management:

A Matter of Paying Attention to Detail

 Grain production has seen its share of descriptive acronyms over the years. There was MEY (maximum economic yield) and LISA (low input sustainable ag) in the 1980s, BMPs (best management practices), ICM (intensive cereal management) and IPM (intensive pest management) in the 1990s, and the most recent buzz phrase, IWM (intensive wheat management).

Jochum Wiersma, University of Minnesota extension small grains specialist, has another idea:  “Why not just call it farming?”

Wiersma took part in a panel discussion at the Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers’ Prairie Grains Conference held recently in Grand Forks. He stresses that there is no single management practice that will greatly influence wheat yields.  Rather, he emphasizes using an integrated system of practices to increase wheat production, paying attention to details. Calibrating grain drills, for instance.  “It’s no fun, but an essential part of the equation,” he says. 

Ed Vasey, professor emeritus of plant science at NDSU, was involved with advancing the MEY concept in the ‘80s. He agrees that attention to detail – like knowing the stage of the wheat crop and using that to maximize the timing window for pest treatments – can make a yield difference. He says this is important for producers regardless of whether they consider their production management conventional or intensive.

In essence, professional detail to wheat production is what IWM consultants provides as a service to producer customers, says Mark Fillbrandt of one such company, Bigg Dawg Agg, Felton, Minn., an Opti-Crop franchise.

Fillbrandt relates an instance in 2003 where his business spent nearly four hours setting a grain drill for one producer to get the accurate weight and setting for uniform seed placement.  Later in the growing season, this allowed the producer to maximize his Folicur fungicide treatment for suppressing Fusarium head blight, by having the wheat staged within a three-day window. According to Fillbrandt, these examples of professional attention-to-detail results are prompting repeat business.

Split Opinions on Split N
The panel spent considerable time discussing fertilizer management and its effects on tillering.  Fillbrandt promotes split applications of nitrogen, where he likes to see 50 lbs of N in spring soil samples to get the crop to the 3-4 leaf stage.  He says it is up to producers to decide between fall or spring applied N sources. This “wait-and-see” approach allows producers to determine how the crop and environment look at that stage to see if extra N is needed.  

Others on the panel disagree.  “We are in trouble if we don’t get rain and get N on in the spring,” says Vasey, explaining that early leaf stages will determine the number of spikelets on each wheat head, which ultimately effects final yield.

George Rehm, U of M extension soil scientist, says that for split applications to be successful, “you need water to get N in the (plant) system.” Rehm also points to his research in the 1980s regarding split N applications. According to his work, split applications work on sandier soils, but for non-sandy soils, single applications of fall or spring applied N are better.

If one does opt for a split application of N, there are new technologies available today to help prevent leaf burn from foliar-applied N. Nitro-bars are one example. Attached to a sprayer, liquid N streams through the bars resulting in a large droplet size that minimizes leaf burn.  A product example can be found online at www.milesnmore.com/images/Opti/NitroBars.pdf .

Fillbrandt says the concern of not getting enough spring rain to get the crop going is one reason to split an N application. “Producers don’t need extra N if drought conditions are present and can lower input costs in those years,” he says.  When too much rain occurs, Fillbrandt says the use of tramlines helps producers get back in the field faster.  He points to a tramlined field south of Fargo this past summer, which received five inches of rain on a Friday, and was sprayed by ground on the following Tuesday, due to the use of tramlines. 

Wiersma says optimum plant population depends on variety, time of seeding and seeding rate. He advises growers to include germination rate, seed count, and expected stand loss in their seeding rates. “Plant population is the key to determining the number of heads at harvest.” 

And, Wiersma says that in his opinion, “N management is a poor way to control the number of tillers,” explaining that tillers which fail to produce grain don’t effect final yield, as they recycle resources to productive heads.

According to Wiersma, as N and plant populations increase, so too does the potential for lodging. The key factor for managing lodging is the choice of variety.  “The stiffest straw varieties have less chance of going down,” he says.  Fillbrandt agrees on that point, and advises that choosing varieties with excellent standability is important for intensively-managed wheat.

Again, the experts pointed out that what intensive wheat management boils down to is attention to detail.  Rehm advises producers to do the best they can with what resources and people they have available. He says producers should decide what scale of management they wish to do themselves, and what expertise they might want to purchase.