We finally finished barley harvest last night and took our first sample of soft red winter wheat.  It rained every day but one the last ten days, not much, just enough to keep you from working full days.

The barley ranged from 30 to 90 bushels and the drowned out areas really pulled down yields.  We have had a year’s rainfall in southwest Ohio in half a year.  The test weight was down to 42-44 lbs.

The wheat sample showed 58 pounds at 15% moisture. Yields will be all over the board on it, too.  The more nitrogen and fungicide you got on, the better the yield.  Some got neither in this area this year.

An important management factor for me was the use of trychaderma again on my seed.  I used the Gaucho insecticide fungicide package with Sabrex Root trychaderma root fungicide. Both contain trychaderma I find profitable in my corn, soybeans, and cereal grains.

They both made over 10 bushels more grain and up to near 20 bushels over the insecticide/fungicide.  Another thing I do is add 2 lbs of Tillage Radish to my wheat seeding and that added near 10 bushels this year.  I had 90 bushels with both, 80 bushels with either trychaderma or radish and 70 without either.  I did not test non treated seed.

Some of my corn strips are visually different with trychaderma today and I have heard the same across the country.  I really feel any good seed company ought to just add that to all their seed, it’s well worth the dollar or so extra cost for them.  Some of the seed companies I deal with do that but none of the mainstream companies do yet.

Some fields are a wooly mess around here with so few days without rain.  Weed control is job one again this year but the biggest impact is our late crop as some corn won’t be knee high by the fourth of July next week.  We need a really good summer to make something of this crop.

Resistant weeds are worse this year as expected.  Sharpen and Ignite are becoming popular words in weed control here and more Gramoxone was used this year than any I have seen.

It’s a mixed bag in Ohio but it’s all behind maturity wise except for weeds.  The bugs really haven’t had a chance yet with all the rain.

Most of the corn got planted here with hopes of $6 per bushel but some preventive planting was taken.  I can’t imgaine what an early frost or cool summer would do to prices.

I have heard a lot of positive comments about the condition of crops planted into cover crops around here.  They are some of the better looking fields around.

There will be lots to talk about at St. Louis in January and it will be here before you know it!

Ed Winkle