“I’m Not an Expert – This Is Just the Way I Do Things”

Selecting Crop Varieties for Next Year

By Paul Anderson

First of all I am an AgriPro Wheat associate, and have had all AgriPro wheat varieties on our farm near Underwood, N.D. since 1996. On our farm we use the “Opti-Crop” method with consulting provided by KAP Custom Ag. For variety selections I look a yield first, protein second. Diseases can be managed with fungicides. Standability can be managed with nitrogen application timing.

We look at both private and public variety trials for consistent performance, like Norpro, which has a top yield in the three-year averages in the NDSU western testing locations. My Dad remembers the dry years, and so we look as well for good performance in Minot, Hettinger, Dickinson and Williston.

It is hard to quantify my influence on other grower’s decisions, but I am always willing to share my experiences with techniques and products, both good and bad with other growers. I get a lot of personal satisfaction from seeing someone be a success with an idea I helped them kick around.  On our farm we have successfully used tramlines for spraying since 1997, and I smile when I see another grower using them in their wheat fields.

How many varieties do I recommend farmers grow?  Three.  In baseball, a career average over .333 should get you in the Hall of Fame. At planting time you just don’t know what the growing season will bring. To hedge the risk, plant a top yielder, a good protein variety and if scab has been a problem, a scab-tolerant variety.  For me, we would use Knudson, Norpro, and Hanna. If you can do a little bit better than average on two of the three varieties you plant, and really hit it out of the park with one variety, long term you will survive and prosper.

A few years ago, one of my smartest customers bought Ivan and Gunner seed from me.  The Ivan was a high yielder with low protein and Gunner was a moderate yielder with high protein.  At harvest he had 65 bu. 12.5% protein Ivan and 40 bu 16.5% protein Gunner. That year did not have a huge protein scale: $.02 per 1/5 up and down from 14% pro. The harvest-time LDP was huge.  He segregated the varieties into two adjacent grain bins.  When he loaded out for the elevator he set up two augers and blended for a 14.5% protein.

We are still tinkering with our crop rotation. I like spring wheat, pinto bean, Roundup-Ready corn, with sunflowers, flax or oats following corn.  Rotation is a very personal thing. One size does not fit all. It depends on equipment, land, livestock and available labor.  Often it seems that markets with high prices at planting time will likely see low prices come fall; i.e. malting barley and soybeans.

We use a Shelburne stripper head on our farm, as it allows us to harvest 800 bu per hour with an 8820 combine.  We like to target semi dwarf varieties like Norpro and Knudson for stripping. If we use a tall variety like Hanna, we try to cut it with the sickle head so it is not too hard to get the Concord Air seeder through the residue.  Last winter we filled our stripper stubble three times with snow catch. Our Opti-Crop consultant probed the soil for moisture for deciding on nitrogen application.  In early June, land with stripper stubble had two more inches of stored soil moisture than our bean ground.

When selling seed, it is important that we can be trusted not to over-promote a variety.  We want the varieties we sell to deliver results come harvest. We would not be in the seed business long if our customers are not successful with our seed.

All of the wheat seed planted in the past five years on our farm is either Foundation, Registered or Certified. Our yields are up and we plan to continue the practice in the future. One of my fellow AgriPro wheat associates shared a story with me about one of his loyal seed customers. This guy still drives a well-kept 1973 Plymouth Fury III,  and wears the same polyester suit to church every Sunday that was bought new in the 1970s. To say he was frugal was an understatement.  But he purchased new certified wheat seed for every acre every year because it paid three to four bushels per acre, year in year out.

When buying seed for the next year, it is never too early to get on the list for the “hot” variety. For example, last year, requests for Freyr started in December of 2003, and this year we are likely to be sold out in January 2005, depending on requests for registered seed. If anything, call your seed dealer to get on the list for a particular variety you want.

Judging by the interest in Freyr, we are likely to plant more of that variety for certified production in 2005.  The pinto bean and corn acreage on our farm will likely stay the same. These are my early gut feelings on acreage trends overall next year:  winter wheat up, grain corn down, soybeans probably stable to down, pinto beans up, flax up, peas up, spring wheat and durum stable, barley down, canola steady, sunflowers steady. Cool season crops will probably gain a bit more favor with growers bruised by this season’s early frost.  Higher protein wheat varieties will also attract more attention for 2005.

If there’s something you’re doing that’s working out well (or hasn’t worked so well), or if you know of a producer with a good perspective on a certain topic – whether it be producing no-till, growing a certain crop, using precision ag techniques, weed/disease control, boosting crop yield/quality or selling grain – we’d love to hear from you.  Contact Tracy Sayler, tsayler@prairieagcomm.com or ph 701-347-5930.