“Crop Watcher” Helps Producers Time Treatments

Below is a pdf link to a hard red spring wheat and durum production management calendar for 2001, developed by Dr. Ed Vasey, professor emeritus of plant sciences at NDSU, for use by clients of Crop Watcher Inc., a crop consultant business headed by Lee Mayer.  The chart helps illustrate when certain treatments or practices should be completed.

Vasey (also known as the “Spring Wheat Doctor”) and Mayer, both of Fargo, revise the calendar each year.  The management calendar, which may soon be available online through a cooperative agreement with NDSU,  is meant to supplement crop staging reports sent weekly to Crop Watcher clients.  The reports help producers keep track of what stage their crops are in, and what treatments may be needed.

The reports are based on up to four planting dates selected by the producer.  Since wheat develops in a systematic pattern correlated to air temperature or growing degree days, Mayer and Vasey track wheat stage development, using planting dates and localized weather data through the  North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN, www.ext.nodak.edu/weather/ndawn/). Timely windows for crop treatments can thus be determined.

Mayer also instructs clients on conducting spike counts to estimate early-season yield potential, to help determine bin space and whether other treatments later in the growing season are justified.  He helps clients with crop budget and profit projections as well, and also does some crop plot trial work and farm real estate appraisal. He farmed for 34 years near Mott, ND before renting his land to a relative. That farming experience, says Mayer, helps provide customer perspective in what he’s doing now. “Having been a farmer, I know what they’re looking for,” he says.

Click here to view the Calendar.