Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Wilke Farm updates provided
Davenport-based program specialist Jesse Ford discusses canola production in Lincoln County at the WSU "Wheat Academy on the Road" event at Memorial Hall Thursday, Feb. 1.
DAVENPORT - The Washington State University Wheat Academy gave an "on the Road" presentation at Memorial Hall to area wheat farmers and stakeholders Thursday, Feb. 1.
Two locally based talks began the morning, with Ritzville-based Extension agronomist Aaron Esser providing a Wilke Farm update and Davenport-based WOCS program specialist Jesse Ford discussing regional canola production.
Wilke Farm is located about one mile east of Davenport and is owned by the university for crop research.
Esser discussed the 10 fields that have been harvested at the farm in recent years, including three in a 3-year rotation, four in a 4-year rotation and three being continuously cropped. Seven fields were in rotation prior to that, since 1998.
In fields with a 3-year rotation, Esser said the return over input cost was $120 per acre, not including fixed farm-related costs. In 4-year rotation fields, the return was $152.77 per acre, and in the continuously cropped fields, the return was $191.37 per acre.
3-year rotation fields include Fields 2, 5 and 7.
Field 2, with no-till fallow, was a net negative at -$32.99 per acre.
Field 5's spring wheat and winter wheat was $357.40 per acre, while its winter canola was $291.86 per acre.
Field 7's spring wheat was $71.14 per acre.
4-year rotation fields include Fields 1, 3, 4 and 6. Field 1's spring wheat and winter wheat were $170 per acre, while Field 3's no-till fallow was -$25.40 an acre. Field 4's spring canola was $99.44 an acre and Field 6's spring wheat and winter wheat were $385.39 an acre.
In continuously cropped Fields 8-10, Field 8's yellow mustard yielded $285.56 an acre, Field 9's spring barley yielded $73.75 an acre and Field 10's winter wheat yielded $218.74 an acre.
Esser said in the last four years, continuously cropped fields tend to have the best yields, though fields on a 4-year rotation did the best from 2020-22.
When discussing canola production, Ford said Lincoln County has grown from 14,300 acres of canola to 23,000 acres in 2022...a 60% increase.
Ford stressed the importance of waiting at least two years between canola crops to prevent soil disease buildup and seeding plants at a rate consistent with the target population.
He said to consider weed pressure, field residue, frost risk and growing season length when making canola crop decisions.
Later last Thursday, Pullman-based speakers discussed wheat disease, seed size and rate and the PNW Herbicide Resistant Initiative.
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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