Farm Director KC Sheperd caught up with Bayer WestBred Southern Region Commercial Manager Lance Embree to talk about how the various wheat varieties have performed this season.
Despite the unusual weather conditions this year, and the outbreak of stripe rust seen in North Texas and Southern Oklahoma, Embree says that he was pleasantly surprised by the performance of nearly every variety of wheat he sold. “Usually, I feel like I can predict yield fairly well, but this year, I was completely shocked by how some of these yields were coming in,” he admitted.
Westbred 4401 and 4699 were the stars of the show in the central and eastern parts of the plains. They handled the disease pressure and still produced exceptional yields. In the western part of the plains, a top pick for Texas A&M, WB4792 continued to shine just as it has since it was released in 2019.
Moving into the next planting season, Embree said that producers need to consider their end goals to decide which varieties to plant and when they will be planting.
“If you are going for forage, you will be planting a lot earlier than when you would be planting for grain. There are also specific varieties that will fit those situations better than others,” he said. “Getting that game plan together right now, and figuring out which varieties are going to fit those situations the best, can take care of ninety percent of the things you can control throughout the production season.”
He said that the product profile sheets for each of the varieties can be accessed at WestBred.com. He added that looking at cumulative plot results is a good statistic to use, and then correlating those plots to their own production practices and regions is another good way to use the information on the website. Producers can also scroll to the bottom of the homepage and select their region to find Embree’s contact information. They can also reach out to the WestBred Sales associate that they have previously been working with.
