Winter wheat: cultivation, processing and varieties

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Winter wheat is a valuable food crop. Irrigation creates excellent conditions for its full growth and normal development, increases its winter hardiness, which ensures good plant viability.

Winter wheat: the possibility of high yields

Using intensive technology, the UK is growing an average of 69.56 q/ha of wheat, while the Netherlands is growing 81.2 q/ha. Many farms that are familiar with the intensive technology of cultivating winter wheat receive stable yields on irrigated lands: 60 or even 70 centners per hectare. The highest yield reached 92.4 centners per hectare.

Under favorable agro-climatic conditions, you can quite get a fairly high yield. Winter wheat feels great on irrigated lands - it yields up to one hundred centners per hectare. This crop is also grown in irrigated crop rotations for silage or for green fodder, and the area vacated after it is used after mowing for crops of cereals, vegetables and fodder plants.

Biological features of growing winter wheat

Wheat belongs tofamily of cereals, by winter it sprouts, bushes and undergoes autumn hardening. After overwintering, plant development continues. The differentiation of the growth cone begins. Its strong growth depends on the strength of the leaves and roots, on the watering of the tissues. Complete saturation of cells with water is necessary to maintain their turgor, stretch, and increase the number of embryos of future ears. This is a very important period for plant life. The critical period in the life of winter wheat continues from the time it reaches the tube to the milky ripeness of the grain.

Early watering before germinal spikelet formation increases the number of grains, and watering at the beginning of flower formation helps to increase the number of developed flowers. During flowering and fertilization, when plant respiration and organic matter consumption increase, plants are especially sensitive to overheating and dry winds. The optimal range of air temperatures in this period is 14-19°C, at a temperature of 35°C, photosynthesis is greatly reduced in plants, the yield decreases to 20, and at 40°C - to 50%. Low air humidity and dry wind also have a negative effect. Growing winter wheat against the backdrop of exposure to high temperatures and such humidity requires close attention.

Feeding winter wheat

Winter wheat has a fairly long growing season, which allows it to more fully use nutrients from the soil. However, her need for nutrients is different, depending on the period of plant development. Therefore, top dressing of winter wheat in springappropriate.

Nitrogen is needed during the growing season, but plants absorb it most intensively in the phases when they go into the tube and ear. Fertilizing winter wheat is important in early spring, at this time, due to low temperatures and possible waterlogging of soils, nitrification processes can be suppressed, and water leaches nitrate nitrogen into deeper soil layers, plants can experience nitrogen starvation even on well-supplied soils. This explains the high efficiency of the result when the top dressing of winter wheat in the spring is carried out correctly.

During the germination period and at the beginning of development, wheat has a high need for phosphorus nutrition, this stimulates the normal development of the root system. With a good supply of moisture, the roots can still penetrate to a depth of more than 1 meter in autumn, which contributes to the frost resistance of winter wheat. Phosphorus enhances the degree of differentiation and a large number of grains on the ear. The lack of it at the beginning of growth cannot be compensated for by any increased provision of this fertilizer to plants at a later date.

The lack of easily digestible potassium in the soil during the period from the beginning of the growing season to the flowering of wheat leads to a significant lag in the growth of the plant and to a lag in the development of plants - they become more sensitive to fluctuations in temperature and soil moisture. A satisfactory supply of plants with phosphorus and potassium in autumn enhances the winter hardiness of winter wheat, and a sufficient supply of nitrogen increases the protein content in the grain. Excess of the latter, as well as excessive soil moisture,leads to lodging of plants.

Winter wheat varieties

Breeders always have an individual approach to regions. Irrigated winter wheat varieties should show a high response to fertilizers, additional soil moisture, and resistance to lodging and fungal diseases.

The best for wheat are chestnut and chernozem soils, their mechanical composition is medium, well aerated. That is, winter wheat is demanding on soils. Unsuitable for it are saline, overconsolidated and wetlands. Modern varieties of winter wheat, used depending on the region, are as follows:

• Tarasovskaya spinous - cultivated in the Voronezh and Rostov regions.
• Rosinka Tarasovskaya is a high-yielding variety.
• Prestige - for regions with late frosts (Volga region, republics of the North Caucasus).
• Severodonetsk anniversary (grown in the Kuban, in the Krasnodar Territory, in the Rostov lands, in the republics of the North Caucasus).
• Tarasovsky spring - grown in the south.
• Augusta is a drought-resistant variety.
• Governor of Don.
• Don 105.
• Kamyshanka-3 - cultivated in the Lower Volga region.
• Nemchinovskaya-57 and 24.
• Moskovskaya-39 and 56.
• Galina.

The last varieties on this list are bred for the non-black earth region, their grain has high baking qualities.

Winter wheat fertilizer

When applied correctlyfertilizers in irrigated agriculture, the yield increases from 40 to 70%. Fertilizers for winter wheat dramatically increase the yield, as well as the quality of the grain. In the experiments of the Institute of Agriculture on irrigated lands, the yield of winter wheat increased from 28.3 to 51.9 centners per hectare.

The increase in yield from the optimal rate of nitrogen fertilizers in the south of the country was 10-10.6, from phosphate fertilizers - 1.2-1.6, and from their combined action - 12.1-16.9 c/ha. That is, winter wheat reacts differently to individual nutrients. According to the conclusion of scientists, potash fertilizers should be applied only when there is less than 300 mg/kg of mobile potassium in the soil.

The rate of application of fertilizers is calculated by the balance method, based on the level of the planned crop, the presence of nutrients in the soil and the coefficient of their absorption by plants. Infestation of winter wheat significantly reduces the efficiency of applied fertilizers, yield reduction reaches 12-15%.

An important reserve for increasing the efficiency of the use of various fertilizers for winter wheat is their very uniform distribution across the field. This condition must be approached carefully. Nitrogen fertilizers for winter wheat should be used selectively, taking into account local soil and climatic conditions, as well as the biology of cultivated varieties, and the planned yield.

When growing on heavy and medium soils with very deep groundwater and low nitrogen content in soils, it is better to apply fertilizer in fragments - two-thirds of the norm for the main treatment, and the rest - for top dressing at the end of spring tillering.

Onon light soils, as well as on heavy soils, with fairly close occurrences of groundwater, losses of nitrogenous fertilizers are possible, therefore, 30% of its annual rate must be used for pre-sowing cultivation, the rest - in the spring for top dressing. In areas where nitrogen reserves in the soil are increased, it is not advisable to apply nitrogen fertilizers in the fall, since this will lead to overgrowth of plants and thickening of crops. In such cases, 40% of the annual nitrogen rate is applied in early spring, and 60% later.

Scientists from Germany, Belgium, Great Britain and Austria believe that in order to obtain 80-95 q/ha of winter wheat, it is undesirable to apply nitrogen fertilizers in the pre-sowing period; combine with the application of fungicides.

To improve the quality of grain, winter wheat crops are fed with urea in the heading phase. In Germany, under winter wheat, liquid manure is applied at the rate of 20-30 cubic meters per hectare, it is used before sowing or during the growing season of plants. Scientists from France and the United States argue that in order to obtain a yield of more than 80 centners per hectare, it is necessary to apply, together with irrigation water, foliar top dressings with liquid fertilizers for a complex type crop, which consist of macro- and microelements (Zn, Mg, Fe, B). Such top dressing of winter wheat improves the quality of the crop and ensures its growth by 2-6 centners per hectare.

Wheat sowing

Cross-sowing per hectare saves 50-60 kilograms of seeds, increasing yieldgrain, in comparison with the narrow-row sowing method, reaches seven centners per hectare. Therefore, winter wheat is sown in cross, narrow-row, belt and broadcast methods. The most common conventional technique is with row spacing of 15 cm, respecting the tramline.

When semi-dwarf winter wheat is cultivated on the farm, three-line band sowing is recommended, which provides higher yields than row sowing. The two-tier sowing, which is carried out with a mixture of seeds of dwarf and ordinary varieties, has also proven itself well. Due to the tiers and improvement of the sowing structure, the phytoclimate improves by 10-15%, which leads to a more complete, economical and productive use of moisture reserves, a decrease in the negative effects of high temperatures, while wheat resistance against, for example, root rot increases by 8-24%.

The harvest of winter wheat is highly dependent on the timing of sowing. Each day of the lost period reduces the grain yield by 20-60 kg. Sowing of winter wheat should be carried out on time. Especially sharply reduces the yield of sowing in October, most of all short-stalked varieties that require earlier terms react to this. Small seeds need to be sown shallow, and large seeds deeper. Shallow incorporation of seeds into the soil, carried out by pneumatic seeders or combined units, contributes to a fairly significant increase in the yield of the crop.

Sowing rates of seeds basically depend on the variety, seed size, sowing time and region of cultivation. The seeding rate must also be differentiated independing on the degree of contamination of the field itself.

Crop care

Crop care includes rolling, top dressing, spring harrowing, lodging control, as well as weeds, various pests and diseases. In areas with sufficient snow cover, snow retention should be carried out, which improves the wintering of plants and increases the moisture reserves in the soil. Spring care of crops begins with the application of fertilizers and harrowing of seedlings. On fields that are prepared for vegetation irrigation, harrowing should be carried out taking into account the characteristics of the irrigation network. In the presence of irrigation strips, it is necessary to harrow only along the sowing; on the borders, the best results are obtained by harrowing with a rotary hoe.

When weeds are present in crops, winter wheat should be treated with herbicides. Before the plants go into the tube, the crops are sprayed. In the same period, crops must be treated against powdery mildew or brown rust. Diseases of winter wheat are treated with systemic drugs, these are Bayletonomil and Fundazol.

If there are turtle bugs, aphids, trips, leeches in the crops, then use "Metafaz" or "Phosfamide", 40%. Care operations for wheat crops need to be combined and carried out two or three times, which saves money, labor and time. It is desirable to treat crops during irrigation, combining the application of the above preparations with irrigation water.

Decrease in the yield of winter wheat depends on the intensity and durationlodging of crops and can reach 25-50% under irrigation, the cost of labor and funds for harvesting grows three times, and the quality of the crop is sharply reduced. The use of TUR on irrigated lands is mandatory, the optimal rate of the drug is three kg/ha of a.i. Processing is carried out during the end of tillering. On varieties prone to lodging, they make a larger rate, and on others - a smaller one. Treatment of short-stalked winter wheat varieties with TUR is not practical.

Irrigation

Irrigation is the main factor in the high yield of winter wheat in all regions of its cultivation. Increasing the grain yield by irrigation is a technology for cultivating winter wheat, while the efficiency of crop irrigation increases when it is combined with fertilizers.

When growing winter wheat, it is necessary to ensure optimal soil moisture to obtain friendly seedlings and normal autumn development of plants. This is achieved by pre-sowing or conventional irrigation. Their value is not the same in different zones of agriculture. In areas where precipitation falls frequently in autumn and deeply soaks the soil until spring, the intensity of irrigation is reduced. In areas with dry autumns and insufficient soil moisture from autumn rains, irrigation is critical for high yields of winter wheat.

When setting the irrigation rate, it is necessary to take into account the depth of s alty horizons and the level of groundwater. Irrigation water should not reach the saline horizon, since the s alts dissolved in it can rise with capillary current and salinize the soil layer where the roots are located. Watering is inefficientat close groundwater levels. Excessive watering rates can cause waterlogging of the soil. Irrigation is effective at a groundwater depth of 3 m or more. At a depth of up to one and a half meters, watering is replaced by irrigation of the soil before planting. The need for watering after germination occurs in dry autumn conditions and on lands with a deep level of groundwater. The timing of irrigation should be determined by the time of sowing winter wheat, the provision of the farm with water, irrigation equipment and the time of harvesting the crop.

Harvesting

The optimal time for harvesting winter wheat is the so-called wax ripeness of wheat grain. This stage occurs when the dry matter content of the grains is already high. Senication (spraying before harvesting) of crops contributes to better crop maturation, increases the yield of winter wheat, so you need to try to harvest in a short time and with the least possible losses.

Prompt harvesting will reduce crop losses and maintain the high quality of the resulting grain. It should be remembered that a delay in the harvesting of winter wheat for more than ten days leads to an indispensable decrease in the grain yield by seven centners per hectare, while the protein content in the grain decreases by one and a half percent.

Green Approach

Cultivation of winter wheat involves, like any agricultural production, many factors:

• natural resources - direct solar energy, atmospheric heat, precipitation water, soil;
• direct costsenergy to produce products for a specific technology or enterprise;
• indirect energy costs that are used in technologies for growing plants in the field, collecting, processing and storing products.

There is a trend of energy overruns in the world. For an increase of 1% of the gross domestic product in the village, the use of energy is increased by 2-3%. Soil cultivation by traditional methods is the most expensive. This technology over the past years has led to a decrease in humus and soil degradation. World trends in the development of winter wheat, changes in cultivation technologies point the way to economical farming.

More than 124 million hectares of land in the world have been converted to sustainable technologies. One of the measures to increase energy efficiency and energy saving is the arrangement of innovative new farms - models of ecological and economic efficient production with a concentration of modern energy and resource-saving technologies. These technologies include: crop mulching, direct seeding, efficient irrigation. The development of winter wheat provides for the introduction of these technologies.

The use of waste generated in agriculture is becoming the way to implement renewable energy projects around the world. In particular, when growing wheat, 2 tons of straw are obtained for each ton of grain. Pre-chopped straw is mainly plowed to restore soil fertility. But part of the straw can also be used to turn it intoenergy fuel briquettes.

Wheat is the main food crop in many countries, due to the exceptional nutritional value of grain and its rich composition. Where winter wheat grows well, it is traditionally the leading grain crop. These are the republics of the North Caucasus, the Central Chernozem regions, Ukraine. Winter wheat perfectly uses the moisture of autumn and spring, bushes, ripens very early and suffers much less from drought and dry wind.