Increase corn yields with the addition of wheat to your rotation

Feb 06, 2017

Follow this guide for planning your soybean crop prior to the wheat

By Patrick Lynch, CCA-ON
Farms.com

Depending on what research you look at, if you put wheat into your crop rotation you can increase corn yields by 10 to 20 bu/ac. (Indeed, I spoke with one grower this month who said on his farm there was a 20 bu/ac difference in a side-by-side comparison in 2016.)

If you believe this research, you need to plan now where you will plant wheat this fall. Once you have made this decision, you need to pick a soybean variety.

If the farm/field can be planted early, pick the best variety for that farm/field. If, for some reason, the farm/field will be planted later, then pick an earlier variety. You will give up yield on the soybeans but will have a corn yield increase the following year.

If you are in an area of 2,800 CHUs or more, you can consider double-cropping soybeans after the wheat crop. The total soybean yield over the two seasons will be greater than picking a long-season variety. In the latter case, you risk not getting wheat planted in a timely fashion this fall after the soybean harvest.

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