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Aberdeen MS | My 5 yr aph is 60+ on wheat and 165+ on corn. My biggest restriction for production at this time is drainage. Not so much tile, the majority of my ground is pattern tiled in the low areas and well tiled throughout the fields in general. It's the drainage ditch itself that needs up dating. One ditch handles close to 400 of the 600 acres. Hopefully that will change this year if the county goes far enough down the line to start a long over due maintenance project. A lot of my tile outlets are under the bottom of the ditch bottom.
Several reasons i prefer to have the wheat in the rotation. I fully realize the profit margin does favor corn when using the dollar as the only bench mark.
With strip tilling and my liquid program, K application is difficult to keep up with in plant feeding. The 4 yr rotation of beans, corn, beans, wheat, beans allows me to broadcast K and work it in ( I do conventional tillage for wheat) eliminating stratification. I can feed the plant need for K with the liquid program, it's just not feasible to work on building. My test levels are 180+ ppm which the U of MN considers "high", but my 7.5 pH + upper 20 CEC soils see a response from applied K.
Traited corn has not lived up to my expectations for ROI. I have a better ROI on non traited hybrids. An example was when Bt hit the market. For 5 yrs in different fields and different hybrids, it was never my top yielding field, generally getting beat by 10 bpa +/-. Last year again, my refuge corn was top yielding variety without applied insecticide. I feel the inclusion of wheat into the rotation aids in keeping the little pressure of RW i do have in check. And I also feel I get a better biological environment in my soils with the increase of the number of crops in the rotation.
Spreading of risk is another factor. My 600 acres is in one block. My furthest point of any field is a mile from the yard. So a weather event effects the majority of the acreage at the same time more so than if I was spread out more. Hail events are pretty much all that would be specific field to field, that is reasonable to insure for. Although the last hail event that effected the production "here" was in 1981.
But mostly the biggest reason of all, it breaks up my work load.
I can utilize smaller equipment and still stay in the "planting window" in the spring reducing my tractor power needs and bigger equipment to stay timely in the spring. I accomplish everything right now with a 100 HP tractor and 30 yr old 180 HP that the hardest work it sees is the 28 ft field cultivator in the spring on the small acreage of wheat. The valve covers have never been off that one yet and last year it saw 70 hours of field time.
I'm solo on 600 acres and have no on site storage. My co-op does an excellent job in fall as my average turn around time is an hour or less from the time I step out of the combine cab for a full semi load until the combine is rolling again. It does increase somewhat with corn delivery, and on occasion, reduced unload times do occur.
I am in my late 50's and have plans on retiring within 5 - 7 yrs and investing in a grain setup favoring corn at this stage just doesn't look attractive to me financially. I could do it if I wanted to, just don't want to extend myself at this stage of the game. I've been able to increase my net profit yearly from when this farm was a corn/bean rotation only in conventional tillage to the program I utilize now.
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Spring Wheat Growers???
