Wheat Crop Progress Report
This is the third report on the progress of the wheat crop since planting.
Firstly we have had 21mm rain on average on the farm since we planted the wheat and even though the recent rains are a blessing we are not out of the woods yet.
The rains have a double effect when planting late as we did. Firstly, while it will boost the growth of the wheat plants, it also causes weeds to germinate – for example ‘wild oats’, ‘soet gras’ and broad leaf weeds.
In a ‘conventional’ or ‘normal’ wheat planting season the wheat would have canopied (covered the soil so as to speak) and with no or very little sunlight reaching the soil, the weeds would not germinate as easily as in our case.
Trying to take the best possible advantage of late or abnormal rains has its pros and cons – pro being that later rains would come at a time when ears are filling and would boost our yield, cons being that the wheat has not canopied and thus the sun reaches the soil and the weeds germinate.
However, as we have seen in the past when we planted in excess of 2000 hectares of wheat we still spray for broad leaf weeds and grasses, so it is not uncommon.
This report will demonstrate how far the wheat has come in the last 20 day (since my previous report) and shows some signs of the weeds that we will have to spray for in a week or two’s time.
Firstly we look at the first cultivar planted, the all rounder ‘elands’.
One can clearly see in the picture above that the soil is visible between the rows of wheat. In our case there are two reasons for this. Firstly, as mentioned above, we planted later than our neighbours and their wheat is further advanced than ours. The second reason is our planting width or row width. A conventional wheat planter has a narrower row configuration where the row spacing is 300mm. We planted with a multi crop John Deere 1780 planter and the narrowest spacing possible on the John Deere 1780 is 400mm for our new planter and 450mm for our old John Deere 1780 planter. The land in the picture above does not show any signs of grasses or broad leaf wheat germinating, but after the recent rain a few sunny days could change the picture. Luckily this particular land is not known for grass problems. In another 20 days the picture above will look completely different; almost like a soft fluffy green blanket covering the soil.
The picture above shows the development of the plants, no damage to leaves, no signs of leaves turning yellow as a sign of a moisture shortage – in short healthy looking plants.
Here is a similar story to the first and second pictures – no signs of grasses germinating or any broad leaf weeds. The wheat was planted on mostly fallow lands, so we should not see any maize or soya ‘opslag’.
One thing that might cause us some damage is the wildlife roaming free on the farm. We have not noticed a yield drop in lands they are seen on and with the recent rains the ‘veld’ grass will turn green and they will move out of the lands.
Now we look at the not so known ‘sst 374’ cultivar. Even though it was planted 10 days later than the ‘elands’ it is hard to tell this by looking at the plants. The ‘sst 374’ might be slower out the blocks but once they get going they will reach the same size as the ‘elands’ and might even overtake them. The reason for this is that it is a shorter grower – in other words fewer days are required than the ‘elands’ from germinating to harvest ripe. Below is a picture of the first land planted with ‘sst 374’.
As you will see from the picture above the plants are smaller and not as fluffy as the ‘elands’, but with the recent rains they will start picking up speed.
As mentioned in the previous report, the land that was planted last had some wheat seeds which did not germinate. The following picture shows that they have now germinated and some are above ground in different sizes.
And the picture below shows a seed just staring to grow.
We might have some issues when harvesting this land because of late germinating (meaning that we might have green ears in between ripe ears), although we have had this issue before; however not due to late germination but late rains. The wheat plant senses that time is running out and it starts making ears, then we have a decent bit of rain and it starts making new ears and you end up with ripe and green ears on the same plant.
As mentioned on the first page, the rain does stimulate weeds to germinate and start growing, and the same goes for ‘opslag’ crops.
The picture below shows sunflower ‘opslag’ in the wheat lands. However, this can be eliminated with a broad leaf weed chemical. Sunflower ‘opslag’ can suck the moisture out of the soil, putting the wheat plants under stress.
Another problematic plant that runs hand in hand with planting wheat is ‘wild oats’. The reason why I say problematic is because it is a plant from the same family as the wheat and a specialized chemical has to be used to target the ‘wild oats’ only. The picture below shows ‘wild oats’ in between the wheat in the block land, a land known for this issue. Proper crop rotation will eliminate this problem.
