We just finalized this year’s Wheat and Barley Survey Report, which Anton Bekkerman and I have been running for the past three years with funding from the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee and survey administration from the MSU HELPS Lab. This year we also had help from MSU DAEE Master’s student Rebecca Kaiser.
I posted about some select questions from that survey last month but you can read it all at the MWBC website. (If you click the link and don’t see the survey, scroll down. Other years are available there as well.)
A few highlights from this year’s survey:
—Overall, Warhorse, Vida, Alzada, and Metcalf were the top varieties for winter wheat, spring wheat, durum, and barley, respectively. All of these top varieties increased in terms of share. Warhorse (winter wheat) and Alzada (durum) saw the largest increases in percentage of total acres planted in those categories. You can also see those breakdowns by region of the state in the image above (click to see the whole image), or for more detail, in the full report.
| Winter Wheat | Spring Wheat | Durum Wheat | Barley | ||||
| Warhorse | 47.8% | Vida | 31.5% | Alzada | 35.2% | Metcalfe | 41.5% |
| Keldin | 9.8% | SY Ingmar | 8.6% | Joppa | 22.5% | Hockett | 25.6% |
| Yellowstone | 9.7% | SY Soren | 6.1% | Tioga | 10.9% | Haybet | 6.6% |
| Judee | 6.7% | Corbin | 6.1% | Divide | 8.8% | Lavina | 5.7% |
| Brawl CL Plus | 3.7% | Reeder | 6.1% | Kyle | 6.1% | Haxby | 4.1% |
| Decade | 2.9% | Brennan | 4.9% | Mountrail | 4.7% | Bill Coors 100 | 3.6% |
| Northern | 2.8% | WB Gunnison | 4.4% | Other | 7.3% | Other | 12.9% |
| Loma | 2.2% | Duclair | 4.1% | ||||
| CDC Falcon | 2.2% | Lanning | 3.9% | ||||
| SY Clearstone | 1.3% | Mott | 1.7% | ||||
| Other | 10.9% | Other | 22.6% | ||||
–We also asked about important factors in making seed choices. (We asked this question last year, but used some different categories this year based on feedback.) This year, yield, protein, disease resistance generally and resistance to wheat stem sawfly in particular, final product quality, and the cost of certified seed (CSO) factors ranked most important.
We asked a number of other questions—about trade dispute impacts, effectiveness of the Market Facilitation Program (MFP), and changes in crop rotations, among others. I’ll likely cover them in another post, or you can read up on them now in the report.
This post was written with Anton Bekkerman and DAEE MS Student Rebecca Kaiser.
1 Comment
Pingback: No big changes in Montana Ag Producer’s Financial Sentiments from 2020 - AgEconMT