Winter wheat growing well

Some people might not think about growing crops in the  winter however these crops grow well in southern Alberta.

Winter wheat yields more than wheat that is planted in the spring.

The Mercers have been growing winter wheat on their farm near Lethbridge for three generations.

“It spreads out the workload,” said Ryan Mercer. “Being able to put that crop in the fall is that much less you have to seed in the spring and we’ve been finding agronomically the earlier you seed the better. Of course you can’t seed everything first in the spring so by having about 20 percent of our land base already seeded it definitely is a benefit.”

Dr. Rob Graf from the Agriculture and Agri-Food Research Centre in Lethbridge said, “It is a higher yielding crop than spring wheat, yielding anywhere from 15 to to even 55 – 60 per cent higher than spring wheat.”

Graf is developing and releasing new varieties of winter wheat.

CDC Falcon has been a popular variety of winter wheat however it was reclassified, moving from a red winter to general purpose wheat. Graf says that Flourish, a variety that was introduced last fall, is a good replacement.

“The big advantage that flourish has is that it is much better quality,” he said. “In addition to having about a half percent more protein it mills much better.”

Another variety, called Gateway is expected to be released in the fall of 2015. It will have good resistance to a serious crop disease.

Graf said, “The advantage that Gateway has is it has an intermediate rating to Fusarium Head Blight and certainly that’s a concern right across western Canada but most importantly in Manitoba.”

Another variety is also being developed.  AC Emerson is being called a game changer for winter wheat. It will be Canada’s first wheat of any class with a resistant (R) rating for fusarium head blight.

Approximately 1.5 million acres of winter wheat are grown in western Canada.