- Author: Mark Lundy
Most California growers are likely aware of state regulations that will soon require some level of nitrogen budgeting at the farm level in many parts of the state. However, it is not only regulators interested in tracking and documenting nitrogen fertilization practices. This is a blurb from today's American Society of Agronomy Science Policy Report:
Fertilizing sustainable farms
In the future, farmers are likely to be faced with growing environmental traceability pressures that are largely driven by major retailers such as Walmart. Walmart, for example, is requiring food companies that use commodity grains to develop a “fertilizer optimization plan” as part of...
- Author: Mark Lundy
FYI: All information put out by the UC wheat breeding program and variety trials on a year-by-year and region-by-region basis can be found at:
- Author: Mark Lundy
The value of a wheat crop depends not only on its quantity but also on its quality. As such, an important management objective for hard and durum wheat classes is simultaneously achieving both high yields and high protein. Historically, there has been a tradeoff: a high-yielding crop will have less N available for translocation to the grain during the filling period (because it used it to build the yield components) than a lower-yielding crop, so high yield can mean low protein. Wheat breeders are aware of this tradeoff and have been working (with some success! See above.) to minimize this tradeoff. Aside from choosing a variety with the potential for high yields and high protein, late-season N applications (from...
- Author: Mark Lundy
While we don’t have control over when the rain comes, we do have control over how we react to it. If the rain arrives on the wheat’s schedule and you have a crop heading for a big yield, it will have different N requirements than one heading for more a moderate yield if the rain doesn’t cooperate. Splitting N applications in wheat is a somewhat common practice in the Sacramento Valley. However, we might be able to improve on the precision (When? Whether? How much?) of our N splits and our overall N management if we can inform our in-season N application decisions by real-time information from the crop-soil system. N fertilization is such a large proportional cost of wheat production, optimizing...
- Author: Mark Lundy
Because the vast majority of our production occurs under irrigated conditions, California growers in the Sacramento Valley rarely get to experience the same level of anxiety about when and how much rain will fall as those in rain-fed growing regions. One exception is the spring wheat that we grow over the winter rainy season. We’ve had such little rain this fall that sprouting a stand in a timely fashion without irrigation would have been a challenge. One wheat grower I’m working with in the S. Sacramento Valley planted in late October and is just now sprouting some wheat after the 0.3 - 0.5” that fell late last week.
