Weather taking toll on winter wheat production

With tumultuous weather over the last few years, the amount of land planted in winter wheat has dropped in this region.

Going into next year, the amount of hard red winter wheat planted in Hill County has dropped more than 25 percent.

Experts and producers agree that this drop is because of weather conditions over the summer and fall months and that it is too soon to tell what next year's crop will look like.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistic Service in 2018 approximately 195,000 acres of winter wheat was planted in Hill County.

Russell Snedigar, Farm Service Agency Hill County executive director, said Wednesday that this year approximately 145,305 acres of winter wheat has been planted in Hill County.

Peggy Lamb, agronomist at Northern Agricultural Research Center of Montana State University, said Monday that due to dry conditions over the summer and wet conditions this past fall, producers were forced to plant their crop later than what is ideal.

Mark Velk, a producer north of Havre, said that when producers should have been seeding in Hill County, the weather was "super dry," and, later, it was too wet and it got late for seeding winter wheat.

"A lot of us was worried about breaking stuff, equipment," Velk said. "It get so dry and hard that it's hard on the equipment."

He added that he believes everyone got around three-quarters of what they wanted to put in.

Farmer Jon Stoner said the winter wheat that was seeded on time looks really good but there is a bit of wheat that was seeded later than normal due to the damp fall. That wheat, Stoner said, has really not emerged.

"A perfect seeding was, we missed it," he said. "In this area, a lot of the time, it just doesn't pan out so I'm sure there was a lot less winter wheat seeded last fall."

Stoner said producers also have many alternatives such as oil seeds, like mustard or canola. He added that the arcreage of pulse crops will also be down next year unless their is a change with the country's trade policies.

"It's real questionable how it's going to turn out," he added.

Lochiel Edwards, a producer out of Big Sandy, said that many acres were not optimum for planting this year in his opinion and that resulted in a cut in the acres planted. He said some producers might put the acres into spring wheat for next year, though on the other hand there are opportunities with pulse crops and oil seeds. Pulse crops and oil seeds are grown under contract with a price named for a portion of the crop, he said, but those contracts, in general, have not been offered yet.

Those contracts are generally offered in January, early February, Edwards said, adding that producers have not made a decision yet as they wait for what the price will be.

"The mix of spring crops is yet to be determined, that's the short answer," he added.

Although farmers were forced to plant winter wheat later in the season, producers and experts look at this winter positively, although they agree it is too soon to tell for sure.

Velk said there is always a risk of winter wheat coming out of dormancy prematurely but winter wheat tends to have "nine lives." It can come in and out of dormancy many times, he said, but the biggest thing is with it being still so early in the winter season if the temperature drops minus-20 degrees it could hurt the crop.

He said it is too early to determine if the winter wheat will be a good crop.

Last season, with it being so dry, it wasn't looking very positive for crops, but after it rained a couple of times, producers ended up with a decent crop, Velk said.

"So who knows," he said. "All we'll have to do is have a couple timely rains and it could be a very nice crop."

He added that late in the season seeded crop does tend to yield less than the timely seeded crop.

Velk said winter wheat doesn't need very much snow, depending on the type of snow, to be insulated. The important thing is that the snow coverage stays.

"It would be nice if it would not turn super cold quick but other than that, I guess, it's probably in pretty fair shape," he said.

Lamb said a cold snap is always a concern for producers of winter wheat. She added that it is also better to have a warmer winter with snow coverage than have it in the negative degrees with no snow coverage. But ideally, she said, producers want at least 4 inches of snow coverage for insulating their crops.

Stoner said as long as the temperatures remain above zero degrees the crops will be fine without snow coverage.

"It doesn't take a lot of snow to insulate the crops," he added.

Edwards said he is not at all concerned about a cold snap harming the winter wheat.

"Where I am, I would like it to be wetter," he said.

If the winter continues the way that it has been going, he added, the winter wheat will be hurting for moisture. An unusual warm spell in January and February could bring the winter wheat out of dormancy, he said, and if north-central Montana gets a subzero blast down from Canada after it is brought out from dormancy it could kill the winter wheat.