Hard Spring Wheat Quality Tour 2010

2010 Wheat Quality Council
Hard Spring Wheat & Durum Tour Completed 

Summary by Ben Handcock, Executive Vice President 

The Wheat Quality Council hard spring and durum tour was conducted July 26-29 in North Dakota plus parts of South Dakota and Minnesota. (Tour Map) There were 54 participants this year, and 34 of them were first-timers on this tour. 

The 321 spring wheat fields surveyed averaged 46.0 bushels per acre, almost exactly like  last year’s 46.2 bushels. The 41 durum fields averaged 38.4 bushels, up from 36.2 bushels last year. We evaluated 8 hard winter fields and they averaged 48.4 bushels, down from 51.3 one year ago. 

The average for all 370 field stops was 45.2 bushels per acre compared to 45.7 last year and the five year average of 38.9 bushels. (Tour Results) 

Day One covered the southern half of North Dakota, southwestern Minnesota and northeast/north central South Dakota. Yields were good on all routes again this year.  The highest yielding field was estimated at 80 bushels and the lowest was 18.3, with a day one average of 42.7 bushels versus last year at 45.9 bushels. Tour members going into the far western areas reported the same kinds of yields as the cars elsewhere.  This is the second consecutive year that western producers are getting a fine crop. 

Day Two covered northwest and north central North Dakota. We did find a few more durum fields in the far northwest this year. We had 34 durum stops compared to 28 a year ago. The yields were impressive again as we moved along the routes. We had a high for the day of 73 bushels, a low of 17 with a day two average of 44.6 bushels. Last year these routes averaged 43.5 bushels.  

Day Three concluded the tour by covering north central/north east North Dakota and north west/west central Minnesota. As is usually the case, this was the highest yielding area of the tour. The day three average was estimated at 50.2 bushels, compared to 49.7 one year ago. Our high was 87.8 and our low was 27 bushels per acre. 

This crop is almost an exact replica of the one we witnessed last year. Only two-tenths of a bushel potential yield below last year’s record.  Again I emphasize the word “potential.” 

This is a tremendous crop with very few problems any place as far as disease or pests are concerned.  The burning question is—“Will we have higher protein levels than a year ago?” I would guess that the answer is YES! The crop progress reports all along had the crop later maturing than usual. In the last couple of weeks the crop has matured very rapidly and many areas are starting to harvest or will start in the next week. There have been few super hot days, but something has caused this crop to catch up. There may have been just enough stress to develop more protein than last year. Let’s hope so. 

Again, we really saw little potential difference in this crop from East to West or North to South.  It looked very much like the crop from 2009. In the final analysis, I predict that we will be very close to the final number ND Ag Statistics comes up with.   

I would expect this to be a very good quality crop with high test weights and no vomitoxin issues. I don’t know if we will reach the desired 14-14.5% protein levels, but I’m sure it will be higher than last year. I think most producers applied more nitrogen after last year’s surprises. I think this crop will probably be very manageable by the processors. 

Once again our results are not official.  The North Dakota Ag Statistics Service will publish official results next week.  Watch for them and see how we compare.  We have been very close for the past ten years or so.  We are not as scientific as they are, we simply overwhelm them with the number of fields we visit, and our formula provided by NDSU has been working very well. 

Thanks to all of you who came, drove cars or helped in any way to make this tour a success. The newcomers have told me they learned a great deal, had a lot of fun and would love to do it again.  We look forward to 2011. 

Please mark the Wheat Quality Council 2011 Annual Meeting dates on your calendar.  It should be interesting evaluating all the new wheat lines grown under these conditions.  The dates are February 15-17 at the Embassy Suites in Kansas City.