By Greg Roth
Fall-planted small grains are slow to develop this spring. What are some possible implications?
Our winter small grains are not developing as early as normal and that has some implications. For the forage small grains, it will likely mean a slightly later harvest. Development is tied a bit to the planting date and accumulated growing degree days, so those planted later in the fall will likely be delayed more than earlier planted cereals. At this point I would estimate the delay in development might be a week to 10 days later than normal for some fields.
The target growth stage for optimum dairy quality is Feekes stage 9 or full flag leaf emergence. Small grains grow rapidly during this time of year and there could be a significant yield penalty from harvesting too early, without much of an improvement in forage quality. Tom Klicer, a consultant from Advanced Ag Systems in New York, suggests scouting fields and plan to harvest the most advanced in development first, then move to the later ones, to minimize this yield penalty.
A second issue is with development of later planted wheat and rye fields. Often these fields don’t tiller much in the fall, but do recover a surprising amount in the spring. This spring, tillering has been limited and development is slow.
Comparison of wheat development from planting in early October versus early November in Centre County.
It’s hard to predict how these fields will turn out, but I am suspecting yields will be off significantly. If some of these fields have significant potential for corn or soybeans, you might want to consider taking them out and making a switch to another crop. This will require some estimates of potential returns from both alternatives. I’d be most inclined to switch if stand counts were low, say 10 plants per foot or less, or if the field had some other issues as well.
A third issue relates to the double crop potential of soybeans. With current conditions, we might see delayed soybean planting following wheat in some areas. In marginal areas, that might mean passing on the double crop soybean idea and investigating an alternative.
It’s still too early to get real concerned and hopefully some warm weather will help solve some of these issues, but they are some things to be thinking about for the weeks ahead.