A hard look at winter cereal crops

Planting some small grains in the fall presents opportunities in a changing climate

Growing interest in climate resilience, soil health and erosion — and a potential new income source for farmers — is leading Jochum Wiersma, University of Minnesota Extension small grains specialist, to take a serious look at winter wheat and winter rye to give Minnesota growers another crop in their rotation.

Minnesota is traditionally a spring wheat and rye state. The crops are planted in the early spring and harvested later in the summer.

Wiersma says that recent warmer winters may put Minnesota farmers in a good position to grow more winter cereal crops that are planted in the fall after other crops are harvested. Those seeds would germinate in soil that may otherwise be bare and more prone to erosion. The young plants lay dormant over the winter, ideally protected by a layer of snow.

Minnesota’s climate does present challenges for producers who want to grow these winter crops. Warmer temperatures in early spring help the young plants break dormancy, but if the weather turns cold again it can, and often does, kill the seedlings.

“Minnesota is still the toughest area to grow winter cereals because of our false starts to spring,” says Wiersma. “If current climate models hold, we are going to get wetter and that could mean more snow, which is great for winter cereals because snow will insulate the crop, especially during those false starts in the spring.”