Very early last spring, I got a call from Frank, who farms just outside of Edmonton. Frank was concerned that his winter wheat had fallen victim to some sort of leaf disease during the winter. It looked pretty bad and he was contemplating ripping it up in favour of a spring-seeded crop. Before taking that drastic step, however, he decided to give me a call and seek a second opinion.
When we arrived in the field it was obvious what he was worried about. The only word that described the foliage in that field was “terrible.” There wasn’t a trace of green in the field but the large tillers showed the plants must have been in good shape going into the winter and should have survived.
Read Also
Producers aren’t panicking over tariffs and trade threats
The Manitoba Canola Growers Association (MCGA) surveyed its members this spring to get a sense of how trade uncertainty was…
We investigated further but didn’t find much evidence of the most common plant diseases — no stripes, lesions or other telltale signs, nor any pattern within the field that suggested certain areas like low spots were dying out, which might have pointed to snow mould as a possible culprit.
It was only after moving into the field and pulling more and more of the lifeless plants that I realized what we were dealing with — the unique biology of winter cereals. Both Frank and I were much more familiar with spring cereal crops, since winter cereal production has only really taken off in our area with the widespread adoption of zero-till.
Winter cereals are a good fit and they offer a lot of agronomic benefits to growers. But they’re definitely not spring cereals. There’s a learning curve for farmers and industry personnel alike when it comes to managing them and assessing them in the spring.
What’s important to remember is that the condition of the plant material right after the spring thaw has no bearing on whether the crop survived. A crop that looks completely dead like Frank’s could be just fine, and in some cases the plant material could look healthy and green, but the plant is actually dead.
That’s because all of the material above ground is completely replaced by new growth from the root crown in the spring. The key is whether or not that root crown has survived.
To check Frank’s crop, we dug up a few plants, roots and all, and took them into his heated shop where we placed them on moist paper towels for a few days. Dead crown tissue will quickly turn brown once it’s warmed up, indicating the damage. In Frank’s case, however, the crowns stayed white, and by the end of the week, we could already see new root tissue.
Most guidelines for winter wheat production say the best strategy for avoiding unnecessary worry over winter survival is to wait until most of your spring seeding is done before you start scouting your winter wheat. By then the warm spring weather will have induced dormancy to break and there will be plenty of evidence one way or another, and you’ll still have time to reseed in the worst-case scenario.
Fred Redhead is a grain merchant for Richardson Pioneer in Legacy Junction, Alta.
