Winter Wheat To New Heights

Helena Elmquist, Odling I Balans

” Winter Wheat To New Heights” a knowledge orientation

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Causes of yield stagnation in winter wheat in Denmark. DFJ Report Plant Science no 147. November 2010. Petersen, J., Haastrup, M., Knudsen, L & Olesen, J.E.

80000

60000

40000

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Causes of yield stagnation in winter wheat in Denmark

Farmers' biological knowledge? Do you go out from the tractor and check seed depth?

The size of the farm has increased . Do farmers activities in right time?

Soil compaction has become a severe problem?

Low prices and cost cutting!

Workshop 2012-08-21

• Control

• Crop establishment • Seed choice

• Soil conditions

• Fertilisation

• Management

SOIL: * Soil compaction * Drainage/irrigation * Humus content * Soil structure

NUTRIENTS: * N-application * P-status * K-status * Micro nutrients * Fertilisation precision * pH status/liming

SEED PREPARATION -OVERWINTERING * Seed preparation * Sowing time * Sowing depth * Seeding amount * Sowing technique

SEED - CHOICE: * Seed (yield, quality, disease resistance, etc.) * Healthiness * Cleanness (no weeds)

CROP PROTECTION: * Crop rotation * Weed * Fungi * Insects

MANAGEMENT * Timing * Machine capacity * Communication of already known knowledge * Competence (responsible for decisions, personal, entrepreneur..)

EXTERNAL FACTORS: * Regulation / laws * Permissible Inputs * Prices cereals & inputs

WEATHER & CLIMAT: *Temperature & precipitation

GROWTH REGULATOR

Influencing factors

The projects goal

• Identify knowledge gaps, new strategies, need for new research

• Identify causes why wheat yield has not increased

The yield increase should not be achieved at the expense of the farm profits or increased environmental impact.

Interviews of farmers

Knowledge inventory

Interviews of 32 farmers • A pair study, normal yield – high yields • Plus farms ~ 1000 kg more yield/ha • Comparable growing conditions • The hypothesis tested in the interview survey

of farmers was that "Some farmers are achieving higher yields because they have better management methods than others."

Hectares?

Labour planning?

Machinery?

Total financial cost?

Crop rotation?

Control strategies?

Fertilisation?

Your interest?

Education?

Enough labor?

Other sources of income? …………..? Potential yield?

Soil nutrient status?

Drainage status?

Expert literature review • Planting material • Soil preparation and crop establishment • Soil compaction • Drainage and irrigation • Fertilising and liming • Crop rotation and preceding crops • Weeds • Pests, • Weather, climate and models

Conclusions – plant materials

• New varieties that are better suited to different conditions urgently need to be developed, as a way to better exploit local resources.

• The growth of the ear during the period before

and immediately after flowering is crucial for winter wheat yield.

• There is also a need for more collaboration

between different research disciplines to achieve higher yields.

CROP ESTABLISHMENT

Several potentially crop yield-enhancing factors • sowing time, • seed rate • seedbed composition • seed placement (vertical and horizontal plane) .

Potential 0-10%.

Soil preparation

• Winter wheat can be grown successfully in systems with ploughing, in systems without ploughing and to some extent also in direct drilling systems.

POTENTIAL - SOIL COMPACTION/LOOSENING

• strongly dependent on the conditions at individual sites.

• the soil compaction/loosening effect can be expected to contribute an estimated yield increase of 0-15%

KNOWLEDGE GAPS - SOIL COMPACTION/LOOSENING • subsoil conditions for yield potential is unknown. • how to improve the long-term structure of the

subsoil and facilitate crop root development.

Spring Wheat 1 Barley 2 Winter Wheat 3 Spring Oilseed 4 Oat 5 Winter Oilseed 6 (Sugar beet) 7 Potato 8 Peas 9

Ranking of crops compaction resistance in topsoil

Source: Johan Arvidsson, SLU

• keeping the soil covered with vegetation • maintaining good drainage status; • minimising the number of passes, • lowering vehicle tyre pressure • trafficking in as dry conditions as possible • growing crops with deep roots • incorporating stabilising materials

Conclusions – Avoid subsoil compaction

Conclusion - drainage

Gammalstorp Gunnarstorp Lanna

Yield increase (in average 32 years trial) Drainage related to no drainage

Ley

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The drainage system - conditions

• a need for a new drainage system on 14 % of Swedish Agricultural land.

• a need for a rebuilding of the drainage system on 15 % of Swedish Agricultural land.

Conclusions - irrigation

• In a global perspective - water scarcity • In a future perspective - drought may become

a major problem in Scandinavia • Sensitivity to water stress varies between

different stages of crop development. • Supplementary irrigation to optimise

production during dry years • Irrigation increase yield by 15-20 %

Conclusions – plant nutrients N

• Swedish trials show maximum 2-3 tonnes/ha higher than Swedish average

• A great potential for yield increases • Precision fertilisation, adapted to field

variations, increase yield by 3 %.

• N in right amount & time - soil mineralisation

• Fertilisation strategies - actual development stage of the crop, present-day varieties.

• Complement fertilisation not to early! Wheat have a compensation availability

• Can catch crops be used as a safety net in relation to high fertiliser and high yields.

A high yield can can be combined with a sustainable production – if balanced fertilisation

Illustrationer Hans von Corswant.

In order to carry out site-specific fertilisation and calculate the correct optimal nitrogen requirements • better crop forecasting and predictions of soil

mineralisation are needed. • practical techniques and fertilisation models must be

developed, - the use of zero and maximum test areas - ”N-sensor is the best technical invention during the last time”

Phosphorous, pH, micronutrients…

• avoid having too low a phosphorus content (P <6) or pH (< 6.3) in the soil.

• Phosphorus fertilisation of soils with low P values and liming on soils with low pH must to be encouraged to increase the potential for higher yield.

• Micronutrient

Winter Wheat Yield due to Preceding crops & N-application rate

(9 trials in Skåne)

3000

4000

5000

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7000

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9000

10000

0 50 100 150 200 250 300

Kväve kg/ha

Hös

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Förfrukt: höstrapsFörfrukt: havreFörfrukt:ärter

700 kg/ha higher yields after winter rape seed and peas

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ter W

heat

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Nitrogen kg N/ha

Preceding crop, winter rape seed Preceding crop, oat Preceding crop, pea

Conclusions preceding crops

• A good preceding crop, yield is on average 1 ton higher than with winter

wheat as the preceding crop. • But the effect of a preceding crop is difficult to explain or predict, and varies

greatly depending on the local conditions. The long-term effect of ley in the crop rotation is certainly important, but difficult to quantify.

• If 20% of the winter wheat could be grown with better preceding crop than today, the wheat production in Sweden will increase by 3%.

• Knowledge gap, a satisfactory descriptions of the importance of crop

rotation and cropping system.

Conclusions - weed • The declining yield increases in Sweden

cannot be explained by increased problems with weeds. Danish study, same conclusion.

• But – the effect of chemical weed control, in particular against grass weeds, will decrease in the future, unless a greater focus is put on integrated control strategies.

• The number of selective herbicides against grass weeds is limited.

Conclusions - weed • major problems with resistance in some grass

weeds. UK, resistant populations of blackgrass Alopecurus myosuroides on 2,000 farms.

Blackgrass, plants/m-2

Yield losses, %

12 5

25 10

50 15

100 35

250 35

500 50

Från Blair, Cussans & Lutman, 1999

Conclusions - weed The prompt reads thus: • Do not let grass weeds take over. Protect

existing assets. • Prevent herbicide resistance from developing

by using Integrated Pest Management (IPM).

Conclusions – pest • Plant pests cause quantitative and qualitative yield losses every year. The actual pest

responsible for most losses and the size of the losses vary between years and sites. • In the 2009/10 season, (SCB 2012).

– 70% of Swedish winter wheat was treated with fungicides, – 33% with insecticides – 94% with herbicides

• Field trials showed that the effect of fungicide treatment on fungal diseases in winter

wheat ranged from marginal to large. Taking into account the cost of fungicide treatment, it is thus not always profitable for the farmer. Profitability is strongly influenced by the wheat winter price, where the crop is grown and the actual weather conditions.

• The most common insect pests in winter wheat, wheat grain aphid (Macrosiphum avenae ) and wheat blossom midge (Contarinia tritici), are not a limiting factor for winter wheat yield at present.

• There is no evidence that increased attacks by pests or deteriorating effects of

fungicides (strobilurins and triazoles) are the main cause of the recent stagnation in winter wheat yields in Sweden. Denmark has come to the same conclusion.

• The farmers in the survey answered that they could increase their yield by 10-20 %

Differences between the farms (examples)

• Right decisions at the right time based on right priorities

• A higher awareness of management's role

• Good planning in terms of extra staff

• Slightly higher P-status • Slightly higher pH-status • Slightly better crop rotation • Tyre pressures on machines

were lower • Higher nitrogen use efficiency • A more balanced fertilisation

• Some field activities at wrong time

• More soil compaction, more are experiencing soil compaction as a problem

• More common with reseeding

• More indicates that it is more important to keep costs down than to get high harvest

High yields Normal yields

Conclusions management

• The overall reason why plus farms achieved higher yield was better management, defined as the ability to make the right decisions at the right time and to prioritise correctly between various tasks.

Conclusions – management: The plus farms surveyed were better able to balance all their crop production decisions in an effective manner. The plus farms are probably more aware of the impact a decision can have on other parts of the business.

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Thank you for your attention!

You can download the Winter Wheat book (in Swedish) from www.odlingibalans.com