Winter Wheat Varieties for the Nebraska Panhandle

Sept. 2, 2015

As producers plant winter wheat for the 2016 crop season, they have a choice: Which variety to plant?

Farmers may prefer a certain variety for best yield, but the same variety may not perform at the same level in the neighboring county. So each year Nebraska Extension develops research-based information listing high-yielding varieties suitable for production throughout the Nebraska Panhandle. (Winter wheat variety trial data for the Panhandle, west central and southeast Nebraska are available at varietytest/wheat.)

How was the list of recommended varieties developed?

UNL Extension tests winter wheat varieties from both public (e.g., UNL, CSU) and private (WestBred, Limagrain, Syngenta) wheat breeding programs for seed yield, test weight, and general adaptability throughout the Panhandle District under both rainfed and irrigated production conditions.

In 2015, 58 varieties were tested at five rainfed sites and 52 varieties were tested at one site (Hemingford in Box Butte County) under irrigation. The five rainfed sites were:

• near Potter in Kimball County,
• at the High Plains Ag. Lab (near Sidney) in Cheyenne County,
• at Hemingford/Alliance in Box Butte County,
• near Chadron in Dawes County, and
• in Goshen County, Wyo., near Lyman, Nebr.

Yield data from these five sites were used to calculate 2015 average yields for the Panhandle District. We calculated average yields of the common varieties tested in the last three years (2013-2015). This three-year average data was used to develop the list of varieties for the Panhandle. The data at the irrigated trial in Hemingford was not meaningful due to significant damage by winterkill, diseases, and hail. Therefore, this data was excluded.

We recommend using the 2014 list of irrigated varieties for the fall 2015 planting. We recommend these varieties for high grain yield production potential throughout the Nebraska Panhandle. These varieties also have better end use quality and better disease and insect packages compared to the older varieties.

One important thing to consider in variety selection for the 2016 season is stripe rust. (See Wheat Rust Resistance Shifts in 2015.) All Panhandle trials were heavily infested by stripe rust (also called yellow rust) due to the favorable weather for the disease (mild summer with medium to high humidity and cooler night temperature). The stripe rust score for the recommended varieties is listed in Tables 1-2. Varieties with a stripe rust score of less than 3 can be considered resistant and those above 7 can be considered susceptible. If the yield of the resistant variety is not significantly lower than the susceptible one, then we suggest you plant the resistant one in case similar stripe rust infestation happens next year.

Seed sources for these varieties are listed on the Panhandle Recommended Varieties web page in the CropWatch Wheat section. Click on individual variety names for more information on the variety and local seed dealers.

For more information on these varieties contact Dipak Santra, Nebraska extension alternative crops breeding specialist at the Panhandle Research and Extension Center, Scottsbluff at dsantra2@unl.edu; office: 308-632-1244 and cell: 970-397-9817.

Dipak Santra, Alternative Crops Breeding Specialist, Panhandle REC, Scottsbluff
Teshome Regassa, UNL Crop Variety Testing Coordinator, Lincoln