While the title is a not-so-subtle reference to Charles Dicken's novel, there is a lot less intrigue in this case. The results of the very dry seedbed combined with a lack of meaningful precipitation in the week or weeks following seeding have become very visible in wheat, barley, and oat fields in the last week or so. At first glance, this may look like a mix of two different varieties of wheat. A closer inspection makes you realize that this is the same variety at completely different growth stages rather than two different varieties.
The challenge ahead is how to harvest these two crops without either an increase in dockage, a loss of quality, or both. The published data on the effect of swathing grain prior to physiological maturity (the point in the development of the crop where the maximum dry weight has been accumulated in the kernel and the only thing left for the crop to do is to dry down enough to allow for mechanized harvest) is pretty straightforward - the earlier you swath during the grainfill the greater the yield loss and loss in test weight will be; not until kernel moisture is below 40% can you expect to not loose grain yield or test weight. That moisture content is not reached until well into the soft dough stage. Swathing the grain in the watery rip or milk stage resulted in kernels that were shriveled and retained a green color.
Leaving grain standing past the harvest ripe stage increases the risk of eventually having the crop getting rained on (if we can only be that lucky in the case of the row crops).
Source: umn.edu
Photo Credit: gettyimages-lishanskyphotography
Categories: Minnesota, Crops