Air February 23, 2000

Thank you Mark, and good morning everyone. Well, the weather has to be on everyone’s mind right now. Overnight lows are floating in the range of normal daily highs, the wheat never has really gone dormant, so what happens if winter arrives with a vengeance the second week of March?

Cold weather tolerance of wheat is something that changes from year to year and variety to variety. We do know that maximum cold tolerance will usually occur in late December and January and we start to lose cold tolerance as we move through February. With every little warm up, after the first of February, the wheat starts to lose cold tolerance and while it can harden back off with some cold weather, it can never go back as far as it was. We also know that some varieties break dormancy much earlier than others and start those tillering and jointing phases slightly earlier. Jagger is a classic example of one of these precocious wheats. It breaks dormancy very easily and gets going quickly. The general rule of thumb is that the earlier the maturity, the more susceptible to freeze damage. This isn’t hard and fast, but a general rule. Okay, the bottom line is this. If we get a cold snap that drops temperatures below 10 degrees for an extended period, more than two hours, then we will probably start to see some freeze damage. If we get below zero temperatures, with no snow cover, we are going to see some major damage, and to more than just the wheat more than likely. Of course the outlook through April is below normal precipitation and above normal temperatures so I truly wouldn’t expect a really cold snap, but this is Kansas and anything can happen!

Let’s stay on the wheat them as we close out this morning. I received the wheat variety planting report recently. This is always fun to see what’s being planted where. Three fourths of the wheat in our area is accounted for in three varieties: 2137, Karl and Jagger, in that order with 36, 22 and 17% of the acres respectively. 2163 is a far distant fourth at 6%. Jagger accounted for one third of all wheat planted in the state last fall and 2137 almost one fourth of the wheat. That’s a little bit more than I’d like to see in two varieties, but better than we’ve seen in some years!

This is Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent, with Ag Outlook 2000.

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