CARMAN, Man. – There are numerous methods that producers can use to determine if their stubble is suitable to trap snow for winter wheat survival: long yellow nylon ropes with knots tied every six inches; plastic hula-hoops; comparison photos to lay on the ground and a variety of math formulas.
At the recent Crop Diagnostic School in Carman, soil fertility specialist John Heard cut through the complication and presented a simple method for stubble assessment. Heard, who has studied stubble most of his career, says 80 is the magic number for winter wheat survival.
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“You need 80 inches of standing sticks for every sq. foot of surface,” he said.
“If your stubble is four inches high, you need 20 standing sticks per sq. foot. If you have 10 inch stubble, you get away with only eight standing sticks per sq. foot.”
Heard said that regardless of which alternative system he uses, it still works out to 80 inches of standing stick per sq. foot.
“It was developed in metric, but I’ve had to switch it over to inches and feet to make it simple for myself.”
Heard did not offer an opinion on whether a single 80 inch stick per sq. foot would do the job.
