Farmers recommend own test plots, crop rotations

Farmers spoke about their experiences raising wheat during the Wheat U program in Spokane, Washington.

Participating farmers were Phillip Gross of Warden, Washington, with the Warden Hutterian Brethren; Derek Schafer of Ritzville, Washington; Wayne Druffel of Pullman, Washington; Brian Cochrane of Kahlotus, Washington; and Mark Sheffels of Davenport, Washington. 

Phillip Gross 

Gross and the Warden Hutterians raise irrigated and dryland wheat. Preserving moisture is a challenge and a struggle for the dryland operation, and wheat is a rotational crop for irrigation. Gross is two-time champion in the National Wheat Foundation’s annual yield contest. 

Challenges are water and disease pressures, he said, citing “relentless” rust and feral rye. 

It’s risky to fertilize for dryland when red wheat bushels range from 20 per acre to 80 per acre, he said. 

“If you put on enough fertilizer for a big crop and you don’t get it, you’ve wasted a bunch of money,” he said. “If you get the rains and you don’t have the fertilizer, you risk growing very little protein and highyielding red wheat. So you have to be very aware as a farmer of what’s going on.” 

Gross tries to apply nitrogen when unseasonal rains are on the forecast; it’s too risky to apply it and wait for rain, he said. It’s easier to raise soft white and hope for high yields and low proteins, he said. 

For irrigated, Gross applies a third before planting and a third is topdressed in the spring time. The rest goes on as needed, he said. Gross conducts tissue and soil testing throughout the season. 

Gross recommends farmers plant plots on their own farm. Doing so over the past four years, Gross has found new varieties that perform better, he said. It’s farmers’ jobs to find those varieties, he said. 

“That’s the only way you will know what varieties do best on your farm, the way you farm, with your farming practices,” he said. “Trust your seed salesman, but confirm. The last thing you want to do is plant varieties you were talked into just because somebody was sitting on surplus seed.” 

Derek Schafer 

Schafer began direct-seeding on his farm several years ago, and added rotational crops to his farm. He thought the risk of not changing was greater than the risk of changing, he said. 

“It’s exciting and scary all at the same time,” he said. 

Schafer said fertilizer is limited due to economics. He’s shifting nitrogen around the field, varying amounts, and is interested to see if use levels out and whether some marginal grounds increase in yield. He sprays fungicide at herbicide application time and treats varieties that are not resistant to strawbreaker footrot. 

Purchasing an 800-gallon spot sprayer has made the difference in profitability, Schafer said. His 16-year-old son went out during harvest, and reported he had sprayed 400 gallons—40 gallons of Roundup—on 1,000 acres on his own. 

Wheat will always be the main crop, but the more acres in peas or canola, the better the following wheat crop will be, Schafer said. 

Wayne Druffel 

Druffel farms with his brothers in an 18-inch rainfall area, raising white wheat, hard red winter wheat and peas or chickpeas. The Druffels try to be very innovative, he said, welcoming any test plot. 

“We’re fortunate—we fight every disease that can come in in a three-year rotation, literally,” he said. 

Druffel applies fungicide twice to ward off rust, and manages inputs to a specific crop while seeking high yields. He applies fungicide during herbicide application and during the flagleaf stage. 

Druffel said running his own test plots show how the wheat adapts to his farm. 

“Is it going to make protein? Is it is going to (have) falling numbers? Things like that,” he said. “It gives you kind of a guideline where you should be. You have to understand where you’re farming, what adapts to what you’re doing and the economics.” 

Druffel said wheat is the bottom line for farmers, but chickpea prices are currently better. He has to stick to a three-year rotation for yield and disease packages. 

Chickpea production has led to corn maggots in non-corn growing areas, Druffel said. 

“Whatever you start with, you can adapt another pest to come up,” he said. “You really have to stay on top of it, because they will explode.” 

Brian Cochrane

Cochrane and his brother dealt with low moisture last year, experiencing low moisture in seeding depths, crusting in soil and sudden steady fall rains, which led to cheatgrass problems. A long snow cover led to snow mold problems for the first time, he said.

“Right now our challenge is economics,” he said. “I’m from a situation where all of us that work on the farm have two jobs to support the farm.” Cochrane tries to be flexible in applying fertilizer and crop protection. “Just enough and just in time,” he said.

Cochrane planted Washington State University soft white winter wheat variety Otto. He directly asks wheat breeders which seed he should be planting 80 days from now.

Cochrane said he needs to look into other rotation possibilities, but economics come first. He’d like to explore more niche wheat varieties, such as hard white wheat, or heirloom grains.

Cochrane said he is transitioning into mulch-till. He tries not to plow, instead scratching the soil surface with a disk, keeping organic matter on top. If there’s too much, it makes it difficult for the drill to push through that matter to seed, requiring a rod weeder. He balances rod weeding with soil conservation and the economics, he said.

“If you can live with a couple thistles out there and seed through it, rather than rod weed it a week before, that’s going to keep your organic matter and you’ll be seeding into a more viable soil,” he said.

Mark Sheffels

Sheffels started direct-seeding in 1996. He says he is about half a wheat farmer and half a winter pea farmer. The rotation allows him to avoid the problems of a strict wheat fallow rotation and is less economically risky, he said. He monitors fertilizer closely with soil testing.

“Winter peas are quite an advantage,” he said. “We all know legumes are nitrogen-fixing.”

Winter legumes get more roots and more fixation than spring legumes, applying about 60 pounds of nitrogen per acre, he said. Yields have been “way” above average, he said, getting more than 100 bushels per acre in dryland areas.

Sheffels considers winter hardiness and yield potential when selecting varieties. Weed resistance is a concern, Sheffels said. Sheffels doesn’t really plant cover crops. He spread some radish seed in with winter wheat once, but the radish population wasn’t what it should have been, he said.

“Probably won’t do that again, but gave it a try once,” he said, noting he needs more information about cover crops. “When we’re so limited by moisture, I don’t want to use it to grow something that doesn’t return.”

Sheffels said nitrogen needs time to get down into the soil via winter moisture. He’s heard complaints from red wheat farmers who applied nitrogen but didn’t make protein, he said. “If you don’t have nitrogen in the lower profile to finish out the development of that crop, you can put 200 pounds of nitrogen on and you’re really fertilizing for two years down the road in the fallow basis, drier areas,” he said.