Rob Graf, a winter wheat breeder with Agriculture Canada, urges growers to be patient with winter wheat this spring. The crop has strong tillering ability so a crop that looks thin because of winterkill or other injury can still fill.
He said the unusual winter with little snow across much of the Prairies might normally leave winter wheat vulnerable to cold damage. But lucky for growers, there has been only one short cold snap.
“The good news is that we didn’t stay very cold very long,” he said. “I think the crops generally are OK.”
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A bigger concern for growers in his region of southern Alberta is the possibility of desiccation injury. It has been so unseasonably warm that some of the winter wheat has broken dormancy and started to grow.
Roots that start respiring need water, but the soil is either frozen or too dry to properly nourish plants. As a result, they could die but Graf urges farmers to wait.
Only three of 20 prairie locations with WeatherBug soil probes indicated soil temperatures low enough to cause winterkill during the one brief cold spell: Arm River and Alameda in Saskatchewan and Summerset, Man.
Farmers in those areas may want to have a Plan B, but even they need to first conduct a spring assessment.
That can be done by removing a few plants on a warm day, rinsing off the dirt and placing them on a moist paper towel in a warm room with plenty of light for at least part of the day.
The plant is damaged if the crown tissue, which is the thickened part of the stem below the soil surface, quickly turns brown. If it remains white, the plant is healthy and will begin to produce roots within a few days.
Winter wheat fields should be assessed only after two-thirds of spring seeding is complete, during the latter half of May.
