(DTN) -- Wondering how your wheat management stacks up against other
growers? Now is your chance to find out: The National Wheat Yield
Contest is open and accepting entries for its second year. "We're going
into the year with a lot of excitement among wheat leaders," said Steve
Joehl, executive director of the wheat contest for the National Wheat
Foundation, which hosts the contest. "A lot of growers are starting to
understand how [the contest] can help transfer technology among growers
so they can improve their productivity." Because it was new, last
year's contest flew slightly under the radar but still ended up with 169
entries, Joehl said. He's optimistic that this year's participation
will double and possibly even triple that number. Registration is
already far ahead of last year's pace, with 50 growers signed up and
months to go before the May 1 deadline for winter wheat and the August 1
deadline for spring wheat. Entries will likely pick up as growers get a
sense of the crop's potential as it comes out of dormancy. David
Eickholt, who placed in the contest last year with a dryland winter
wheat yield of 147.74 bushels per acre (bpa), is already eying his
central Michigan fields for the 2017 contest. "We're planning on
entering, but it just depends on how the spring plays out," he told DTN.
"We started scouting last week and some of it looks very good." Last
year delivered ideal wheat-growing weather for much of the country, and
the overall national yield winner, Phillip Gross of Warden, Washington,
hit 192.85 bpa with an irrigated WestBred winter wheat variety. The
2016 contest helped cast a spotlight on an innovative group of wheat
farmers who manage wheat as intensively as they do corn and soybeans. "I
can't tell you how much I learn from these growers," Joehl said.
"They're scouting their wheat weekly and -- in critical times of the
season -- two or three times a week." Among the inputs and management
tactics that were highlighted by the winners of last year's contest were
fungicide applications, nitrogen use and seeding rates carefully
calibrated to each growers' region. This year, Eickholt has his eye on a
new variety from the Michigan Crop Improvement Association, and says
the spring weather will determine how he manages fungicides and
micronutrients in any contest fields. "We do more scouting on wheat and
we use more fungicides, and that's been very successful," he said of
his operation. Growers must be members of either a state wheat
association or the National Association of Wheat Growers to participate
in the contest. Youth is no barrier; the minimum age is 14, and last
year's national winner for irrigated winter wheat was Jagger Borth, a
high school senior from Meade, Kansas. The contest will be divided into
the same four categories as last year: dryland winter wheat, irrigated
winter wheat, dryland spring wheat and irrigated spring wheat. The
winner of each category will be determined by how many percentage points
the crop yields above the county average, and an overall highest yield
winner will also be recognized. The contest also recognizes the growers
recording the highest yield above the county average within each state.
The entered field must have at least five continuous acres of a
certified or branded wheat variety. Growers who are planning to enter
should keep careful records of every planting metric and input
throughout the growing season. The entry fee is $100. The contest has
very specific rules on how to harvest and check yield for the entered
field, and a recheck is required if your field yields above 150 bpa. You
can find those specifics, along with all the rest of the contest's
rules and regulations, here: http://bit.ly/… The contest's original
four sponsors of BASF, Monsanto, John Deere and Croplan are joined by
Syngenta, Indigo Agriculture and The McGregor Company this year.