Eastern Nebraska winter wheat growers are invited to join a new email group, easternnewheat@listserv.unl.edu, where they can correspond with and learn from each other while getting timely news for their operation.
By subscribing, growers have the opportunity to correspond with other farmers, extension educators, extension specialists, private industry representatives, and others with interest, knowledge, and experience in managing winter wheat in our eastern Nebraska environment.
This is part of the Winter Wheat Works Initiative, a local Nebraska Extension effort to encourage and support growers in eastern Nebraska to move from a strict corn-soybean rotation to a successful flex-rotation where some winter wheat acres are considered each year and strategically integrated into their cropping system.
In addition, I will be sending out a weekly email that highlights resources that are timely and relevant to growing winter wheat in eastern Nebraska. The subject line in the email will be “What’s Up This Wheat?” and will cover five main areas:
- weather,
- media highlights,
- economics,
- agronomics, and
- tips.
How to Subscribe
Send an email message to LISTSERV@UNL.EDU and in the message field type:
SUBSCRIBE easternnewheat
Do not put anything in the subject line and do not include a signature block as the listserv will try to interpret each line as a command. You can also email Nathan Mueller at nathan.mueller@unl.edu and he will add you. To view previous winter wheat emails go to http://croptechcafe.org.
Example of last week's email
“Hello All,
Starting this week, I will be sending emails called “What’s Up This Wheat (Week)?” highlighting weekly resources for growing winter wheat in Eastern Nebraska. This is part of my Winter Wheat Works Initiative.
Weather
- Nebraska Drought Monitor for March 29: Nuckolls County under moderate drought and other portions of southeast NE are abnormally dry.
- Understanding Freeze Injury to Nebraska Wheat: Spring freeze this weekend, but don’t be concerned as wheat is tillering, 12 degrees for 2 hours needed to cause damage.
Highlights
- Nebraska Farmer Magazine: Giving Wheat a Whirl in Eastern Nebraska: Highlights some wheat growers north of the Platte River
Economics
Agronomics
- Market Journal Video: Scouting for Wheat Diseases with Stephen Wegulo: Watch this quick 4-minute video on scouting diseases in April
- CropWatch: Controlling Weeds in and Fertilizing Winter Wheat, Particularly Late-Seeded Fields: Get nitrogen on late-planted wheat ASAP
Tips
- Wheat fields sampled in Dodge and Washington counties this fall came back low (1-4 ppm) in chloride in the 0-2 ft soil test (https://www.bookstore.ksre.ksu.edu/pubs/MF2570.pdf). Chloride promotes plant health and disease suppression in wheat. Kansas State has shown an 8% yield increase in central and eastern Kansas with just 20 lbs of chloride applied per acre. An early spring application of potash (44 lbs/ac) or ammonium chloride (31 lbs/ac) added to you top-dress dry nitrogen application is an effective method and timing.
— Nathan Mueller
