Project Leader
Project Personnel
Identify top performing winter wheat cultivars in central Montana.
Standard winter wheat variety performance trials were conducted on pea/lentil cover crop the previous year at Moccasin (CARC) and on fallow at Denton, Belt, Judith Gap and Geraldine during the fall of 2020. Trials consisted of both named varieties of winter wheat and additional experimental lines. Each variety was seeded in three 5-row, 5 x 16 foot plots in a randomized experimental design to determine differences between varieties. Seeding dates were 2 September at Moccasin, 22 September at Geraldine, 25 September at Belt, 28 September at Judith Gap and 29 September at Denton. Planting depth was 1 inch at a rate of 20 seeds/ft2. Starter fertilizer, 20-30-20-10 NPKS, was applied at seeding at a rate of 50 lb/ac. All plots were trimmed to a harvest length of approximately 12 feet and harvested with a small plot combine. Plots were harvested on 28 July at Moccasin, 11 August at both Denton and Geraldine, 12 August at Belt and 31 August at Judith Gap.
The growing season started with near average temperatures and precipitation for May. Average annual precipitation was 11.34 inches in Moccasin. In 2021, total annual precipitation was below the 110-year average. Average annual temperature was 2.6°F higher than the 110-year mean, with other notable individual monthly averages of 9.6°F warmer in December and 10.8°F below average in February. July was the hottest month with an average monthly temperature of 72.9°F (6.9°F above normal). Rainfall was 2.46 inches below average in June, .58 inches below the July average with August receiving 1.18 inches above average. Below average rainfall in June (80% below the 110-year average) coinciding with much higher temperatures which persisted throughout much of the growing season (Table 1) likely contributed to poorer than average yield performance for many of the trials.
Average grain yield across the 22 cultivars presented in Tables 2 through 6 ranged from 23.9 bu/ac at Denton to 56.7 bu/ac at Belt. Brawl CL Plus was the highest yielding variety at Belt while Keldin, Brawl CL Plus, SY Clearstone, SY Monument, and Judee were the top performing lines at Geraldine. Differences in yield were not significant among the top 10 varieties at Moccasin. No statistically significant differences in yield were observed among any varieties at Denton and Judith Gap. Average protein ranged from 9.8% at Belt to 16.7% at Judith Gap.
Drought conditions resulted in low yields throughout the region. In addition, extensive grasshopper damage at Geraldine resulted in yields that were well below the historic average.
An expenditure summary will be provided by OSP. No additional grant support was provided for this project.
A request for continuing this project was submitted for funding consideration for the next fiscal year. Funding was awarded. Thank you!