Wheat & Bluegrass

Wheat & Bluegrass

Wheat & Bluegrass

I’m Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

Xianming Chin, plant geneticist for ARS WSU Pullman, says he has seen very little stripe rust in commercial wheat fields, as dry weather initially slowed the development, but it’s early yet and that could change after the recent cooler weather. Chin also says that while stripe rust is primarily a winter wheat problem, it did develop early on spring wheat in the Walla Walla area, and that spring wheat fields are beginning to reach the stage where they should be sprayed with herbicide. Glen Squires, CEO of the Washington Grain Commission, had this to say about wheat crops here in the state.

SQUIRES: It’s really kind of mixed. Some areas of the state got hurt by the heat and freeze, probably bushels will be down in those areas and harvest a little later. Other areas harvest is likely to be a little earlier - lots of moisture, crops look good, so it kinda almost depends on where you’re located. We’re anticipating that the crops will be down from last year just because of lower yields.

I talked to Chad Denny, who farms outside of Spokane, about how his bluegrass crop is doing and whether he has seen stripe rust in his winter wheat.

DENNY: The bluegrass looks good. I’ve heard quite a few reports that it’s not very good in the area. My field looks okay. Bluegrass is really tough to guess on what it’s going to yield, cause last year I thought it looked great and it was not worth a darn. But I have heard of some fields that - like some of them they just tore them out, some they won’t even harvest they’ll just try to keep them there for next year. But the wheat, all in all here, the winter wheat looks fantastic in our area. I’m about due to spray again if I needed to but I haven’t seen any (stripe rust) so I’m taking it day by day.

 

I’m Lacy Gray and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Ag Information Network. 

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