SEED VARIETIES FOR
2008
2007- An
Unprecedented Year
The year
started very dry, then spring rain pushed back the seeding of late season crops
but this saved the small grains. It
was hot and dry through most of the summer and half way through the wheat
harvest. Then we got more rain,
which saved the row crops. The 7 ½“
of rain on August 3 south of
Fessenden missed us. We got
2”. There was a lot of flooding
where they got heavy rain. Yields
were good, barley ran about 80, wheat about 55, pintos over 1600#, and corn
about 120. We didn’t have soybeans
but I’ve heard 40-50 bushels.
WHEAT
Glen. It
thrashes hard! It’s in the top 5 in
3 year yield trials at Carrington.
It probably has the best package of yield, disease resistance, and
quality of any wheat available, with test weights of 62-65#. It is a 2005 NDSU release to replace
Alsen.
They took care of the shelling problem.
Briggs
was
released in 2002 from SDSU. It is also in the top 5 in 3 years yield trials at
Carrington. It seems to perform
well in drought conditions. We put
it on lighter ground or sunflower ground.
Faller, is a
2007 release from NDSU, which had the top 3 year yield average in
Carrington. The straw strength is
ok, and the yield is excellent. It
doesn’t appear to be as drought tolerant as some of the other varieties. It’s an increase variety so until
January 31, people in
Wheat
pricing may change as the market changes.
I don’t know what else to do!
BARLEY
Tradition
was
released in 2003 by Busch Ag. It’s
a good quality, good yielding barley.
It has taken over Robust’s role in the malting
market. There has been a lot of
interest in barley this year. We
are not selling any more until we clean and see what we have. We think this will be done before the
end of the year.
DRY
BEANS
Maverick
Pintos. These are
available and in good supply.
Rogers Bros varieties are in very tight supply.
Eclipse
Black Beans. We should
be able to get Western seed, and it will be priced
accordingly.
Lariat
and Stampede, NDSU’s new upright varieties will go out to seed producers
this year so hopefully by next year we will have a good supply. Lariat are about one week longer in
maturity than Maverick and Stampede are a touch shorter than Maverick. Hopefully they will look better than the
Roger Brothers varieties with better availability and
pricing.
Commercial
Beans. In 2007 the yields were good, but
harvest was hard.
New Crop
prices are in the mid 20’s with nobody interested. I think acres may slip in this area but
further north it sounds like they will remain stable. It’s always interesting, but we have
never experienced anything quite like this!