Wert ponders whether seeding winter wheat will be good idea Farm and Ranch Guide: Producer Reports

Producers in the western and central regions of North Dakota are finishing spraying. Jon Wert, who farms north of New England, N.D., sprays his spring wheat for weeds.

NEW ENGLAND, N.D. - Producers in southwestern North Dakota have finished small grain harvest, and that includes Jon Wert.

He said he finished combinining everything except for one field of canola - and his corn, of course - on Thursday, Aug. 28.

Jon has the date handy in his record book that he keeps in the combine with him. He writes down everything he does to refer back to later, things such as yields, diseases, chemicals used, varieties, etc. When he gets ready to seed or combine, he can check his book to see what he used before, and what worked or didn't work.

“Right now, we're still waiting on the canola to dry out,” he said.

The canola is in the field near Lefor that had regrowth and may take another week or two before it is ready to combine.

The Werts have taken the harvest to the bin and haven't sold any of it yet. They have some canola contracted for deliveries in November and January.

Jon was out spraying weeds in wheat stubble when we called for his report.

“We've had a lot of weeds this year,” he said. “With the drought, there was not a lot of canopy to compete with them.”

He said the most prominent weeds are kochia and pigeongrass.

To control them, he is using a tank mix of 16 ounces Roundup with 16 ounces Rifle D. Rifle D is a combination of Banvel and 2-4-D, Jon said.

There has been .15 inch of rain that has fallen on Wert fields, but it is still dry.

His corn was damaged somewhat by hot, windy weather over two days in late August, Jon said.

That wind was followed by a cold front that moved through southwestern North Dakota Sept. 2 and 3.

On the morning of Sept. 3, Jon said the temperature at their house was 37 degrees. He said the melons in their garden looked wilted and the lawn was white. One producer in the area told Jon his temperature dropped to 28 degrees.

“I'm concerned about the front that moved in last week,” Jon said.

Later, he found that one of his corn fields froze. He said he needs to decide whether to have someone silage it or if to still harvest it for grain as it will probably be light in test weight.

He is also trying to decide on seeding winter wheat.

Jon thinks he will seed it this year into the wheat field that he is now spraying for weeds. However, that was a field with such poor yields that the crop adjuster zeroed it out. In addition, it is still fairly dry with not much moisture over the past few weeks while the rest of the state has received rain.

He could seed it into the very short crop, but worries about volunteers.

“It could potentially be a problem,” he said.

Wheat fields to the west also had significant sawfly problems and that is another reason to worry with the winter wheat.

In preparation for seeding winter wheat, he called and checked on fertilizer costs and found 1034 starter phosphorus running at $1,300 at ton, triple the price it had been.

“With $50 an acre for starter fertilizer, and rainfall this fall still a question, I wonder if it will be worth it to put in winter wheat,” Jon said.

Now that harvest is finished, Jon was planning on attending Big Iron in Fargo. He goes every year with his father-in-law John Vanderghe and brother-in-law John Jay Vanderghe, both farmers near Cleveland, N.D.

He is looking forward to it and usually takes in the seminar with the Money Farm market analyst Mike Krueger (www.themoneyfarm.com). The Money Farm is a grain marketing advisory service located near Fargo, N.D., and Jon likes keeping up with information about grain markets.

“The more information we have, the better we off we are when it comes to grain markets,” Jon said.