Next 30 days busy for wheat center

    Wheat farmers finally got into their fields this week to begin this year’s harvest.
    But for the staff at the Henry J. Stumpf International Wheat Center just east of Grant, wheat harvest takes on a little different perspective.
    Like their farmer counter-parts, it’s payoff time but for the wheat center that payoff comes in the form of valuable research results.
    For wheat center Extension Educator Strahinja Stepanovic,  the data obtained with this year’s harvest will be key in helping fulfill the mission of the wheat research center.
    While actively involved in wheat research, he has also been at the forefront of conducting research on two pulse crops—field peas and chickpeas.
    Harvest of this year’s pulse crops will come in August on the heels of this year’s late wheat harvest.
    His research is looking at the crops as a replacement for fallow tilling in a corn-wheat-summer fallow rotation.
    He was joined by other researchers and industry specialists for the center’s summer field day in mid-June.
    Yield results from test plots for wheat, pea and chickpea varieties were presented, along with the cropping practices used on the plots.
    This year, data will be gathered on 49 different winter wheat varieties and the various cropping practices used.
    In addition, the center provides plots to University of Nebraska wheat breeders  and commercial seed companies to conduct experimental and trait development research.
    Stepanovic said the research by these entities represents the pipeline for new varieties. They select desirable traits to breed into future varieties of seed.
Pulse crop opportunities
    Stepanovic said their research on pulse crops last year looked not only at yield potential but water use. Those same studies are underway again this year.

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