Wow! What a year for wheat! From the early spring, when there was a lot of talk on whether we would have much of a crop at all this year, to one of the best wheat harvests in many years. Since our county has such a variety of soil type and textures, I was fortunate to be able to have two producers willing to plant a demonstration plot for me. This gave the producers with different tilling practices, as well as soil types a better look at how the wheat was developing based on the situation they have on their own land.
The first plot was grown on Dave Strecker’s land just east of Galatia. At the site, we planted 26 varieties, including 2 varieties twice, one set of seed was treated and one set was not. We had two experimental varieties as well in the plot to see how they produced in the conditions of the area. The plot was planted on no-till silt loam on Oct. 12, 2015, with a seeding rate of 80 lbs./acre along with 44 lbs. of DAP 18-46-0 and a top-dress of 50lbs of UAN. The plot was then harvested on June 24, 2016. For the entire plot, the yield was 79.235 Bushels/acre (Bu/A) and the test weight average was 61.6. Byrd takes the top spot this year at 97.38 Bu/A. The results from there are as follows:

VARIETY YIELD
Byrd 97.38
Denali 89.36
Tam 114 89.18
Kanmark (treated) 85.59
Oakley 85.59
T158 83.03
Tam 111 78.06
Pistol 77.52
Chrome 76.36
T154 75.34
Redhawk 72.26
4458 68.37
Cedar (untreated) 64.06
Tam 112 91.52
Winterhawk 88.29
Grainfield 86.10
Kanmark (untreated) 85.59
Mint 83.44
Armour 79.13
1863 77.90
Postrock 76.88
Wizard 75.37
Brawl 73.80
Cedar (treated) 71.60
Larry 66.21
Everest 61.50

In September as well, we will be getting the 2016 State Variety trial publications at our office when they are finished compiling all of the information from around the state. These will be available for anyone to pick up to use and help make decisions for your next wheat crop.
Also, on the subject of wheat, I would like to thank everyone who participated in the Market Wheat Show for Barton County! The winner for the 2016 show is David Strecker with a Kanmark Variety. Second place went to Kevin Hlavaty with Grainfield and 3rd place was Mike McCurry with Cedar. These samples, as well as all the samples from the county show will be entered into the Kansas State Fair to compete against the rest of the state.
Alicia Boor is the Agriculture and Natural Resources agent for Barton County K-State Research and Extension. You can contact her by e-mail at aboor@ksu.edu or calling 620-793-1910

The southern plot was on Brian Anschutz’s land, located in the sandy river area on Radium Road. This land is conventional in practice. At this site, we planted 16 varieties including one experimental from K-State. The plot was planted into sandy loam soil on September 21, 2015, with a seeding rate of 60 lbs/acre along with 8 gal Quad 5 8-18-5-5.5 and a top-dress of 45lbs. of N. The plot was then harvested on June 17, 2016. The plot averaged 37.40 Bu/A and the test weight average was 61.01. The top spot goes to Everest on this site at 49.0 Bu/A. The rest of the results are as follows:

VARIETY YIELD
Everest 49.0
Larry 47.9
Double Stop 46.6
Flint 41.0
Kanmark 36.2
Ruby Lee 36.2
Cedar 33.5
T 154 32.2
Bently 48.8
1863 47.2
WB4458 41.3
Wizard 40.5
Pistol 36.2
Winterhawk 35.9
IBA 32.7
Larned 29.5