WHEAT PERFORMANCE IN ILLINOIS TRIALS - 2003

Crop Sciences Special Report 2003-01

July 2003

Emerson D. Nafziger, Darin K. Joos, Ralph W. Esgar, and Brian R. Henry

Department of Crop Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana

With only 650,000 acres of wheat harvested in Illinois in 2002 and an average yield of only 49 bushels per acre, there was concern that acreage would continue its downward slide. However, disastrously dry weather in most of Southern Illinois resulted in low corn and soybean yield, with higher average wheat yields than corn yields in a few counties. This, along with a recovery in wheat price, led to increased interest in wheat among producers, and planted acreage in 2002-03 recovered to 800,000 in the State.

The fall of 2002 was relatively cool and dry, and wheat got off to a rather slow start, with less than average amounts of tillering and ground cover before dormancy. The crop came through the winter well, in part because it stayed cold, without repeated freezing and thawing cycles. Early spring weather was extremely favorable, with cool, dry weather in March and April. It was rainy and cool through much of May, with many wheat fields in Southern Illinois saturated at points during May and June. Despite wet conditions, there were not serious problems with leaf and head diseases in most fields, probably due to cool temperatures and low inoculant loads. Fusarium head scab was an exception, but it was at high levels in only some fields. The weather in late May and early June remained cool, with enough good, sunny days to result in very high yields. The estimated yield on 780,000 acres harvested this year is 62 bushels per acre – the highest ever in Illinois – according to the July estimates. Final yield could be even higher. Farmer field yields in the range of 120 bu/acre have been reported. As you will see in this report, a wheat variety at DeKalb topped 150 bu/acre this year, and all but a few varieties in the Northern region produced regional average yields of more than 100 bu/acre. With regard to wheat, Central and Northern Illinois, and parts of Southern Illinois, looked almost like Europe in 2003.

Plots in these variety trials were seeded at the rate of 36 seeds per square foot, and consisted of six 7.5-inch rows trimmed to about 16 feet long before harvest. There were three replications. Yields were corrected to 13.5% moisture. As there were few diseases to rate, we did not take systematic ratings at any of the locations. But this year, we are including Fusarium head scab ratings from Dr. Fred Kolb’s misted, inoculated scab trial at Urbana. This trial included some of the commercial entries in our variety trials.

Location	Cooperators	Soil Type	Planted	N fertilizer	Harvest
Dixon Springs	Steve Ebelhar Ron Hines	Grantsburg silt loam	Oct.15	40 Fall 75 Spring	June 24
Belleville	Ed Varsa Ron Krausz	Ebbert silt loam	Oct. 15	40 Fall 70 Spring	June 25
Brownstown	Lindell Deal	Cisne silt loam	Oct. 9	40 Fall 70Spring	June 25
Orr Center	Glenn Raines Mike Vose	Clarksdale silt loam	Oct. 1	40 Fall 60 Spring	July 1
Urbana	Bob Dunker Mike Kleiss	Flanagan silt loam	Sept. 26	40 Fall 40 Spring	July 4
DeKalb	Lyle Paul Dave Lindgren	Drummer silty clay loam	Sept. 25	40 Fall 40 Spring	July 14

Participating Companies

Following is a list of addresses and phone numbers of companies that entered wheat varieties in the 2003 University of Illinois trials reported in this publication. We thank these companies for their support of this program, which is designed as a neutral comparison of all wheat varieties available for production in Illinois.

AgriPro Seeds, Inc. Miles Seed

Box 411 East 8^th St. P.O. Box 22879

Brookston, IN 47923                                                     Owensboro, KY 42304

(765) 563-3111 (800) 685-0877

Armor Seed Co. Ohio Seed Improvement Assn.

P.O. Box 178 6150 Avery Rd

Fisher, AR 72429 Dublin, OH 43013

(870) 328-7222 (614) 889-1136

Beck’s Hybrids Pioneer Hi-Bred Int’l.

6767 E. 276^th St. 14171 Carole Drive

Atlanta, IN 46031 Bloomington, IL 61704

(317) 984-3508 (800) 950-3489

DeRaedt Seeds, Inc. Royster-Clark, Inc.

10 N 971 Tower Road                                                   999 Waterside Drive

Hampshire, IL 60140 Norfolk, VA 23510

(847) 464-5553 (800) 776-0665

Diener Seeds, Inc. Steyer Seeds

371 N. Diener Rd. 6154N Co Rd 33

Reynolds, IN 47980 Tiffin, OH 44883

(219) 984-5837 (419) 992-4570

Excel Brand Seeds Syngenta Seeds, Inc.

Box 320 P.O. Box 1240

Camp Point, IL 62320 Winterville, NC 28590

(217) 593-7708 (252) 746-3004

GROWMARK, Inc. UAP Richter Co.

1701 Towanda Ave. P.O. Box 230

Bloomington, IL 61701 Pittsfield, IL 62363

(309) 557-6399 (800) 533-8309

JGL, Inc. Wilken Seed Grains, Inc.

3540 S. US 231 P.O. Box 770

Greencastle, IN 46135 Pontiac, IL 61764

(765) 6535-5402 (815) 844-3458

Lewis Hybrids, Inc.

P.O. Box 38

Ursa, IL 62376

(800) 252-7851