Farmer burns winter wheat stubble for yield boost

Edward Cook was finishing up a 130-bushel-per-acre field of oats when I stopped by his farm on Friday. Cook farms 2,600 acres near Dugald, Man., just east of Winnipeg. He has enjoyed a good harvest.

His overall average oat yield will be around 105. His Falcon winter wheat yielded in the 80s and 90s. And his Cargill special oil canola — v2018 — yielded 48 bushels per acre based on how much bin space it filled. The final yield won't be quite that high, but it's still his "best canola yield ever," Edward says. His InVigor hybrids did not yield as well, but parts of those fields had to be reseeded this spring due to excess water.

He still has 700 acres of row crops to harvest, including 580 acres of sunflowers. He lost a large chunk of one sunflower field to corn seed maggot and cutworms. The corn seed maggots actually chewed right into the planted seed and ate it before it germinated. The field had been planted onto winter wheat stubble, which had been worked twice before planting — including once in the fall. Turns out the maggots and cutworms love a field environment with decaying crop matter and good moisture.

Farmers in Eastern Manitoba often use tillage to reduce crop moisture and deal with heavy stubble. Zero tillage hasn't worked very well for them. But since working up the stubble seems to promote insect damage, many farmers are stuck with burning the stubble to get rid of it. Plus, Edward says he got a 20-bushel yield advantage for oats on burned stubble. He says he'll probably burn all his winter wheat stubble this fall.