By DOUG RICH

INSPECTION — Doug Meyer (L) and Kent Winter (R) from Andale, Kan., inspect a wheat field for disease and insects. Andale was the first stop on the Small Grains Solutions wheat tour this year. The wheat looked good but would soon be needing a drink of water. (Journal photo by Doug Rich.)

During the first day of the 2011 Small Grain Solutions wheat tour we stopped to look at fields owned by Doug Meyer and Kent Winter, who farm near Andale, Kan. At that time, the first week of April, both growers thought their crops looked good.

Meyer said his wheat had good growth but some of the double-crop wheat was beginning to dry up. A few fields with dense stands had patches of powdery mildew and a couple of fields had some barley yellow dwarf.

“Other than that everything looks pretty healthy,” Meyer said. Winter said his continuous wheat had decent moisture reserves thanks in part to a heavy rain they had last July Fourth. He had enough fall moisture to get good stands on double-crop wheat following corn but he expected those fields to show moisture stress first.

Meyer had fields of double-crop wheat following grain sorghum and soybeans that were beginning to turn blue the first week of April.

“We went into fall with very good moisture reserves,” Winter said. “But if we don’t get rain in the next couple of weeks, it will look a lot different.”

Planting conditions were good last fall and both men were able to get their wheat crops planted in a timely manner. Meyer started planting on Sept. 28 and finished up on Oct. 10. Winter said he started planting on Oct. 3 and finished by Oct. 20.

Meyer planted several varieties including Art, Fuller, Santa Fe, Armour, and Jackpot. Meyer said Jackpot, a hard red winter wheat developed by Colorado State University, is one of those wheat varieties that look bad in the field but good in the bin. Meyer said it generally yields very well and has good test weight. Winter planted mostly Fuller on his dry land and Everest on irrigated ground following a corn crop last fall.

Both farmers stuck very close to their normal crop rotations this year.

Meyer said he keeps fields in wheat for three to four years then goes to soybean or grain sorghum for two to three years depending on the situation. Meyer said it is real common for him to come back with grain sorghum after wheat harvest.

“A large part of my program is rotation with grain sorghum, soybean, or corn,” Winter said. “I usually try to stay in wheat three to four years before rotating back to a summer crop. If we have decent condition following wheat harvest a lot of this area will come back in with double crop soybeans or grain sorghum.”

Both farmers stayed with their traditional crop rotations to spread the workload and the risk. Meyer uses primarily conventional tillage practices. He tills soybean and grain sorghum ground before planting wheat. Although he has tried no-tilling wheat into soybean ground with a conventional drill, which works as long, as there is good soil moisture.

Meyer and Winter split their nitrogen applications.

Winter chisels in 45 pounds of nitrogen as ammonia in late summers and puts another 30 pounds of actual nitrogen as a top-dress application in December or January. This is normally applied with a broadleaf herbicide. Meyer said the only difference in his fertilizer program is that he puts on 10 to 15 pounds of actual nitrogen as a starter fertilizer then he adds a top-dress application in January or February along with a herbicide application.