Selecting the right variety is job one for North Carolina wheat farmers and the most important key is planting varieties that are specifically targeted to the Tar Heel State.

North Carolina State University recommends farmers avoid varieties not adapted to North Carolina.  The best choices for North Carolina farmers are varieties that have been in N.C. State’s Official Variety Test for more than one year, notes Randy Weisz, Extension small grains specialist at N.C. State.

“Avoid investing in varieties that have not been entered into these tests because they usually are not adapted to North Carolina’s growing conditions and may be highly susceptible to local diseases or mature too late to follow with double-cropped soybeans,” Weisz said.

In recommending varieties, N.C. State encourages wheat farmers to keep up to date on newly released varieties and how they perform in North Carolina. Small grain varieties generally have the highest yields and milling quality during the first couple of years after their release which is why the university recommends changing varieties over time.

In its official recommendations, N.C. State encourages farmers to plant three or more varieties every season to reduce the risk of freeze injury, pest damage and other forms of crop failure and to maximize the potential for a high yielding crop.

At wheat field days held across North Carolina this year, N.C. State small grains breeder Paul Murphy said wheat farmers are in a good place to select wheat varieties because a large number of public and private companies are producing varieties targeted to North Carolina. 

“Every organization selling wheat varieties in North Carolina has good varieties,” Murphy said at the 2015 Eastern North Carolina Small Grain Feed Day held this spring at Griffin Farms in Washington, N.C.

“It’s just that some are probably better for your operation than others, depending on production problems you may have, like soil born mosaic virus or if you’re no-tiling into corn stubble or if you have a history of a Hessian fly problem.”

Yield and test weight are still the first things to think about when choosing a variety, but farmers also  need to seek varieties that are resistant to powdery mildew and leaf rust which appear every year in North Carolina,  Murphy said.

“To me as a wheat breeder, the disease that scares me the most is scab (Fusarium head blight),” Murphy said. “We don’t have a large number of varieties that are resistant to scab. Pay particular attention when you’re choosing varieties to scab resistance. There is no variety that is completely resistant to scab. The highest level is being moderately resistant.”

Of the 16 wheat varieties listed on N.C. State’s small grain production website, only four of the varieties are rated moderately resistant to scab, with the rest being either moderately susceptible or susceptible, said Christina Cowger, USDA-ARS plant pathologist at N.C. State.

“That’s a problem because if you’re going to try to plant a large proportion of your acreage to high yielding varieties then you’re going to have trouble planting a high proportion of your acreage to scab-resistant varieties,” she said. “I think it’s going to be necessary for us to vote with our feet and choose increasing percentages of scab resistant varieties even if it means paying a little bit of a yield penalty in a non-scab year.”

In years when scab is a problem, varieties with moderate resistance to the disease will be equal to or better yielders than scab-susceptible varieties, Cowger stressed.

Murphy also emphasizes the importance of Hessian fly resistance in variety selection. North Carolina has seen a steady increase in Hessian fly numbers  in the past five years, and Murphy believes farmers may be suffering yield losses to the pest and not realize it.

“Sometimes when people are having these 50 and 60 bushel yields, and they are saying that’s just the way it is, I’m often wondering how much Hessian fly is nibbling away at those yields,” he said.