Winter wheat in the spring

With spring in the air and corn and soybeans being planted across the province farmers are also looking to another crop to make sure it is healthy for this growing season: the winter wheat that was planted in the fall.

Winter wheat that was planted last fall, grew over the winter and began to regrow once the soil warmed up this spring. Soil needs to be between 10°C and 14°C to allow the seeds to begin growing and the wheat needs these soil temperature to wake up after the winter.

Farmers will start accessing their field to see how much wheat survived the winter.  Survival is dependent on a lot of factors but Too much or too little snow and  the freezing and thawing swings we sometimes see. Both of these situations can cause the wheat to die and the planted won’t start to grow in the spring.

In some cases where the death rate of a field is too high then the farmer will till the wheat then replant the field into another grain like soybeans, oats or barley.

The wheat that does survive the winter will need some food or nutrients to stay healthy as it begins to regrow! Farmers will apply a fertilizer in either liquid or solid form to give the plants the nutrients they need for the rest of spring.

From here it is a few short months until harvest, where the wheat will be used to make a variety of end products and shipped worldwide!