2022 Kentucky Wheat Yield Contest Winners
Chad Lee, University of Kentucky
The 2022 Kentucky Wheat Yield Contest Winners have been identified. S & J Emmick of Hancock County harvested 132.68 bushels per acre. Camron Clay and Mark Wells from Union County are State Champions for the Tillage division at 121.91 bushels per acre.
The Area Winners reported yields ranging from 113.07 to 123.47 bushels per acre. Area winners include Rudy Hall in Todd County for Area 1, Tanner Shroup of First Class Farms in Hancock County for Area 2, Walnut Grove Farms in Logan County for Area 3, and Peterson Farms with a field in Mercer County for Area 4. All the area winners were no-tillage.
Curt Judy won the Supervisor Award for most entries with four. Curt also won for the highest top-three average yields supervised at 118.82 bushels per acre. Clint Hardy, Katie Hughes, Matt Futtrell and Evan Tate also supervised multiple entries.
Awards will be given to each winner at the 2023 Kentucky Commodity Conference in Bowling Green, KY on Thursday, January 19, 2023. More information about the Commodity Conference can be found at this website: http://www.kycommodityconference.org/ .
For the winners, wheat planting occurred between October 7 and October 27, 2021 in 7.5-inch rows. Seed rates ranged from 1.2 to 1.8 million seeds per acre or 147 to 170 lbs seed per acre. Five wheat varieties comprised the six winning entries: Pioneer 25R29 (two entries: Overall highest yield and Area 3 winner), AgriMaxx 505 (Tillage State Champion), AgriMaxx 512, Croplan 9203, and AgriMaxx 454.
Winning farmers who applied nitrogen in the fall, applied a range from 9 to 41 lb N per acre. Winning farmers applied winter rates ranging from 103 to 160 lb N per acre and total N rates (fall, winter, and spring applications) ranged from 69 to 167 lb N per acre. Phosphorus applications ranged from 30 to 150 lb P2O5 per acre and potassium applications ranged from 30 to 150 lb K2O per acre. Four of the six winners applied sulfur in a range of 5.5 to 45 lb S per acre. One winner applied 2 tons per acre of chicken litter and four winners used Palisade growth regulator.
Winning farmers used herbicide programs including Roundup followed by Quelex, Harmony only (2 entries), Roundup followed by Pixxaro, Zidua SC + Tarzec + 2,4-D LV6, and Fierce + Roundup Powermax + Harmony. All winners reported using fungicides. Fungicide programs included Miravis Ace only (3 entries), and either Fitness, Approach Prima, or TopGuard followed by Miravis Ace. Insecticide programs included Warrior, Fastac, Lampcap II (3 entries), and Warrior followed by Lamda Cy.