LONDON, Ohio – Despite the extremes of a dry wheat planting season last fall and the wettest spring in a century, the Ohio State University Farm Science Review wheat harvest yielded successful results and a farm average of 85 bushels per acre, which was common this year in west central Ohio.
“We had a lot of concerns this year all the way through the wheat growing season,” said Nate Douridas, farm manager with the Farm Science Review at the Molly Caren Agricultural Center in London. “We started with seeding into some of the driest conditions ever last October, and waterlogged soil this spring created disease pressure all the way through harvest.”
Douridas said the positive outcome was ensured by two fungicide applications: one at full flag leaf and one at the first sign of flowering, about five to six weeks prior to harvest.
“We knew we had conditions favorable for diseases this spring, and we followed the OSU application guidelines – making two applications to protect the yield and investment we had in the field,” he said.
Douridas said as they consider the 2012 wheat crop, Review managers will evaluate the wheat varieties they have grown in the past and look at the Ohio State wheat trials for 2011 paying special attention to yield and disease resistance. The Farm Science Review aims to have its wheat sowed each year by Oct. 10.
This year’s timely harvest, combined with good soil moisture at harvest and a strong soybean market, led the Review to plant a significant amount of double crops in the wheat stubble on 130 acres. Douridas said he expects to see double crop beans that were planted by July 6 to yield in the mid-20s provided normal weather conditions continue.
This year’s Farm Science Review will be held Sept. 20-22 at the Molly Caren Agricultural Center in London, Ohio. Tickets are available for sale at local agribusinesses and any OSU Extension office for $5 in advance, or $8 at the gate. Children 5 and under are free. For more information, go to fsr.osu.edu.
Farm Science Review is sponsored by the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, Ohio State University Extension, and the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center. It attracts more than 140,000 visitors from all over the country and Canada, who come for three days to peruse 4,000 product lines from 600 commercial exhibitors, and learn the latest in agricultural research, conservation, family and nutrition, and gardening and landscape.
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