Everyone has a measurable goal, whether it is a basketball player dreaming of scoring 50 points in a game or training a racehorse to outpace Secretariat’s record-shattering 2 minutes, 24 seconds run from the 1973 Belmont Stakes. For Trent Peck, co-owner at P2 Farms near Hunter, Oklahoma, his dream was to raise 100-bushel wheat and he can now mark that off his bucket list. This year his wheat averaged 107.7 bushels per acre.
Unfortunately, Peck did not know how to enter the National Wheat Yield Contest; if he had entered, he would have handily taken home the top prize for the 2019 dryland winter wheat category for Oklahoma. Even without the recognition, Peck is proud of his hard work and eagerly looking forward to continuing to grow top-notch wheat in Oklahoma soil.
“It was just a phenomenal year,” Peck explained. “We had good moisture, beautiful filling weather and God helped us out a lot. We had an amazing response to all the fertilizer we put on and the late freezes didn’t hurt it at all. The variety was Westbred 4699 and it was the first time I had grown it. The 4699 was a brand new variety this year and they didn’t have enough to go around for everybody. I just happened to get a little bit from my seed dealer. He let me try it on 75 acres and the rest is history.”
Peck, and his father, Max, cultivate 5,000 acres of corn, soybeans and wheat in the Hunter area. Peck said they are a 100% no-till operation and he credits that change in their tillage system as a major factor in the success of their wheat crop.
“I’m really glad we’ve switched to no-till,” Peck said. “I think it’s really helped the soil out in a lot of different ways, like adding more soil moisture holding capacity. Ever since we switched to no-till, we’ve gone from 40- to 50-bushel wheat, to 70- to 90-bushel-wheat and now it’s up to 107-bushel wheat.”
Peck said he was a little bit pessimistic about ever meeting his goal, because in prior years the best wheat P2 Farms ever raised only yielded 90 bushels per acre.
“I always dreamed about raising 100-bushel wheat, but I didn’t know if I would ever get there,” Peck said. “Between me and my dad, we figured some things out, soil sampled, pushed the limits on the fertilizer and we finally did it. It’s just amazing to watch something you’ve dreamed about come to fruition and it makes me feel like now I know what’s possible and I’ve got another goal to beat next year.”
Lacey Newlin can be reached at 620-227-1871 or [email protected].
