High wheat yields but some disease

Most of South Dakota’s wheat harvest has wrapped up. Northwest areas of the state were still harvesting some spring wheat at the beginning of September.

This year’s wheat harvest was one that will stand out from the rest because of a cool, moist weather pattern, resulting in high yields, but also some disease. Because of problems in moving grain on the rail system, much of this grain is being stored on the ground because of the lack of available storage. Moving this grain out of the state will continue to be the story for the next few months. The following data was collected from local elevators and S.D. Wheat, Inc. members in the three counties.

From Sully County the spring wheat had yields which ran from 65- 85 bushels per acre, protein at 13.4% and test weight around 61.55 lbs./bu. There were reports of winter wheat yields in the range of 70 – 90 bushels per acre; protein ran around 12.47% and test weight at 60.6 lbs./bu. The last third of the crop had high levels of vomitoxin anywhere from 2.1 to 5 ppm. In Potter, Walworth and Campbell counties, they have wheat sprouting caused by an excessive amount of moisture, which prevented the harvest.

From Hughes County, hard red spring yields averaging 65 bushels an acre, proteins at 12.6% and test weight at 61.5 lbs./bu. Vomitoxin levels were prevalent throughout the harvest, but the majority of the crop was within the milling standards of 2.0 ppm or less. Some pockets of higher vomitoxin levels of well over 2.0 ppm were found. Hard red winter wheat yields were around 55 bushels per acre, protein at 13.2% and test weight at 62.5 lbs./bu. Limited amounts of ergot were found and for the majority of the crop the vomitoxin levels were under 2.0 ppm.

And from Tripp County, the spring wheat yield was around 50 bushels per acre, protein at 13.1% and test weight average at 58.8 lbs./bu. Overall, the quality was reported as good, with very little disease. The protein levels were lower than average, which runs around 14.5%. The winter wheat yield ran around 62 bushels per acre, protein averaged 13% and the test weight was 59 lbs/bu. There was very little disease in this year’s crop as well.

The South Dakota ten-year average yield for HRS is 38.8 and ten-year average for HRW is 42.