Give up wheat yield for quality traits? Or, give up quality for high yields?

For generations, wheat farmers have faced this dilemma when choosing their wheat varieties and management protocols. But, Kansas Wheat and Kansas State University Research and Extension have a brand new program, Wheat Rx, to help farmers so that they can raise high-yielding and high-quality wheat.

Wheat Rx is a series of Extension publications and other educational outreach materials designed to address key management areas of hard winter wheat. These publications contain recent data based on novel research funded in part by wheat farmers through the Kansas Wheat Commission’s 2-cent wheat assessment.

“Kansas Wheat Rx is a combination of suggested management practices for economical and sustainable production of high-quality and high-yielding wheat in Kansas,” says Aaron Harries, Kansas Wheat vice president of research and operations. “Over the past five years, the Kansas Wheat Commission has made it a priority to focus research investments on elevating the overall quality of the Kansas wheat crop. While the extreme weather in Kansas certainly has a major effect on the quality of each wheat crop, there are certain practices and tools that farmers can use to improve quality.”

Intensive management practices

Romulo Lollato, K-State Research and Extension wheat and forages production specialist, is coordinating the Wheat Rx program through K-State. Lollato has also been the lead researcher on several projects over the past few years that have focused on intensive management practices for wheat. Results from this research will be part of the Wheat Rx series. Lollato has also collected data from hundreds of commercial wheat fields directly from farmers across Kansas to evaluate the management practices common to top-tier wheat producers.

“In the last five years, we have learned a lot about the yield potential of wheat in Kansas, as well as how to manage the crop to reach its economical optimum,” Lollato says. “In several projects, we also evaluated how management and variety selection impact the end use properties of wheat. In this series of Extension materials, we will compile results from the latest research, both on small plots and at the commercial field level, to educate our growers on how to maximize their profitability through management of yield and quality of their wheat crop.”

Variety selection

The first in the series of Wheat Rx publications, “Wheat Variety Selection,” can be found on the Kansas Wheat website, kswheat.com/wheatrx. Each publication will be two to four pages in length and will focus on a specific wheat production topic. More publications in the series will be released by K-State on an ongoing basis, including updates to existing publications as new research data becomes available. Accompanying videos will also be produced for several of the topics.

“Wheat varieties with preferred quality genetic potential, certified seed, advanced agronomics and soil health are all components of a prescription to raise the highest-quality winter wheat in the world,” Harries says. “The global marketplace for wheat has become much more competitive in the last decade. Kansas farmers must continue their track record of innovation and technology adoption to lead the world as the Wheat State.”

Source: Kansas Wheat, which is solely responsible for the information provided and is wholly owned by the source. Informa Business Media and all its subsidiaries are not responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset.