I’ve been to a couple wheat field days lately – Bayer Crop Science’s and Sygneta AgriPro’s for example. I missed Limagrain’s field day because I was out of town, but I heard about varieties that Limagrain, a new player in the North American, market has coming.

It’s gratifying to see all the new effort that private and public breeders are putting into wheat. They’ve all are developing varieties coming that will make wheat more competitive with corn and soybeans.  AgriPro is even testing hybrids again in North Dakota

Winter wheat is getting more attention from breeders, too. There’s a significant yield advantage now for winter wheat over spring wheat in the Northern Plains. You can plant winter wheat when it usually dried and the crop will be advantage of the cool, wet weather in the spring that would otherwise delay seeding.

Rollie Sears, long-time breeder with AgriPro, wonders whether the protein premium for spring wheat may not be around much longer. More and more bakers are using enzymes to get the kind of dough quality they need from lower protein wheat.

Protein premiums are hit and miss now. If they disappear altogether, you may find your best opportunity for profit in the future in winter wheat.