Winter Cereal Harvest Summary

For the most part, winter wheat, fall rye and hybrid fall rye are in the bin. Overall feedback from the growing season has been good with some exceptions where standing water in the spring while the crop was breaking dormancy caused reduced or failed stands.

Emerson and Wildfire winter wheat yielded well in the 90’s. There was some disease pressure in Wildfire that was fairly consistent with its disease package rating relative to Emerson. Looking ahead, we will be putting in a new hard red winter wheat variety this fall called AAC Vortex. This variety has superior winter hardiness and excellent lodging resistance.  AAC Vortex has an awesome disease package with R ratings for leaf, stem and stripe rust and MR to fusarium head blight.  Make sure to talk to us next fall about this variety!

 Hazlet fall rye did well this year, yielding 80-90 BPA – we noticed these fields showed less stress from excess moisture. Fusarium and ergot were present in Hazlet but appear to be at manageable levels. Nothing new to report for next year in terms of open pollinated fall rye varieties with Hazlet still being the go-to.

Hybrid fall rye showed its true colours this year with a definite yield bump over the open-pollinated varieties. The additional moisture and residual N left over from last year allowed the crop to perform well and some areas had yield averages at +100-110 BPA. Looking ahead, a new hybrid fall rye from KWS is here called KWS Receptor. With KWS Bono standing as the current yield champion of hybrid rye, KWS Receptor brings similar (if not better) yield potential but with the stronger defence towards ergot development. This tolerance is built in with the PollenPlusTM gene which is being bred into the next generation of hybrid rye varieties like KWS Trebiano and KWS Receptor.

Seed supply of Emerson and Wildfire winter wheat, Hazlet, KWS Bono, KWS Trebiano and KWS Gatano is good. And we will have limited availability of KWS Receptor. Book your fall cereal before Aug 30th to receive the best discounts on seed and seed treatment. Give us a call to figure out the best fit for you!

-Steve Tapley