Expanding Wheat Production in Kentucky
By Dr. Carrie Knott, University of Kentucky
Kentucky is known nationally for consistently growing a wheat/double-crop soybean rotation. This rotation has been a part of Kentucky agriculture for many years because of all its benefits.
Wheat helps keep soil in place during the winter, reducing erosion.
Wheat reduces nutrient loss from fields because it is a winter annual that grows and uses nutrients during the winter when other crops do not.
Wheat reduces the number of weeds in fields when wheat stands are healthy.
Wheat contributes to improving soil and building organic matter.
Perhaps the biggest benefit of wheat is that it can be harvested for grain!
Although cover crops and wheat have similar benefits, except for being harvested as a cash crop, wheat does not have two major challenges that plague many cover crops in Kentucky. First, termination of cover crops at the preferred timing can be particularly challenging during the spring in Kentucky due to cool, wet conditions. Second, the risk of increasing slug and mollusk populations that negatively impact the following grain crop is not a concern in wheat production like they are in cover crops.
Despite all these benefits, wheat production in Kentucky has fluctuated considerably, which is driven by available markets. Currently, there is a great demand for wheat from millers and distillers.
Tips for anyone considering adding wheat to their rotation, whether they have never grown wheat or if it has been many years since they last grew wheat:
Start small. Don’t immediately put as many acres in wheat as possible. Start with a few fields to see how a wheat crop fits in with existing operations/resources/personnel.
Pick fields where wheat will thrive. Avoid fields with drainage issues.
Be patient. It takes 3 to 5 years to ‘learn’ how to effectively incorporate a new crop or rotation into any operation/system.
Be prepared to adjust corn management. A profitable wheat crop depends on timely planting in the fall. This often means that corn management needs to be adjusted to support timely wheat planting. Planting corn hybrids with a shorter relative maturity (RM) can allow corn harvest earlier in the fall and allow earlier wheat planting.
Profitability is typically greatest with on-farm grain drying and storage systems available. This allows corn and wheat to be harvested and dried rather than field drying. It also allows earlier double-crop soybean planting, which generally increases the yield of the double-crop soybean and increased the profitability of the entire crop rotation.
Kentucky wheat production has declined from more than 600,000 acres in the early 1980s to less than 400,000 acres in 2022.
From the early 1980s to about 2015, a wheat/double-crop soybean rotation has been grown on at least 25% of Kentucky’s soybean acres. The average wheat/double-crop soybean production during this period average was about 30% of the total soybean acreage in Kentucky.
Beginning in 2017, declining wheat production has resulted in less than 20 percent of soybean acres being produced in a wheat/double-crop soybean production system. If current projections hold, we may have as much as 22 or 23 percent soybeans in wheat/double-crop soybean for 2023, far from 35 to 40 percent during the 1990s.
Reduced soft red winter wheat production in Ohio has also led to increased opportunities for Kentucky wheat.