In Ohio, soft red winter wheat is the predominately produced small grain, with 530,000 acres planted in fall 2024 (USDA-NASS, 2024). Soft red winter wheat is commonly used for sponge cakes, cookies, crackers, and other confectionary products (U.S. Wheat Associates, 2023). Although soft red winter wheat is commonly produced by farmers in Ohio, there is interest in other classes of wheat or other small grains due to local demand and niche markets.
A three-year experiment was established at the Northwest Agricultural Research Station in Wood County, Ohio, to compare soft red winter wheat yield with specialty small grain yield. Across the three-year experiment, soft red winter wheat had the highest yield, averaging 93 bu/acre (Figure 1). The fall-planted ancient wheat (spelt) yielded an average of 47 bu/acre. Winter malting barley had an average yield of 82 bu/acre and triticale had an average yield of 80 bu/acre. Hybrid winter rye yielded an average of 71 bu/acre while winter rye for feed yielded 59 bu/acre.
Hard red spring wheat and durum wheat yielded much lower than fall-planted wheat, averaging 39 and 35 bu/acre, respectively (Figure 1). The two spring-planted ancient wheats, einkorn and emmer, yielded even lower at 13 and 17 bu/acre, respectively. Spring barley for feed yielded an average of 51 bu/acre, and spring barley for malt yielded an average of 60 bu/acre. Of the spring small grains, oat had the largest yield at an average of 73 bu/acre; however, yields were extremely variable depending on the year and variety. Please see the FactSheet for detailed variety information: https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/anr-0154
Overall, spring small grains tended to have lower yields than the winter small grains. This is likely due to the shorter grain-fill period associated with spring small grains compared to winter small grains. Furthermore, spring-planted small grains are extremely sensitive to planting date. Spring-planted small grains yielded the highest amount in 2021 and 2023 when they were planted on April 5 and April 13, respectively. In 2022, the spring small grains were planted on April 20 due to wet weather, which resulted in lower grain yields.
Figure 1. Grain yield of winter and spring small grains. The shaded box shows the inter-quartile range, representing the middle 50% of the value. The solid line within each shaded box represents the median value. The upper and lower whiskers represent the maximum and minimum value, respectively.
Although grain yield is an important parameter, there are several other important factors that need to be considered before producing specialty small grains.
- Contracts or Other Agreements
Specialty small grains are not sold through traditional grain elevators that sell corn, soybean, and wheat, so a contract or other agreement should be in place before planting. - Grain Quality Parameters
Depending on the end-use, certain grain-quality parameters may need to be met. For example, hard red winter wheat should have a medium to high protein content of 10% to 13% (U.S. Wheat Associates, 2023). However, in an Ohio environment, protein content may be lower. In addition to protein, other quality parameters of test weight, grain plumpness, germination, and deoxynivalenol concentration may be important depending on end-use. - Agronomic Best Management Practices
In Ohio, most small grain agronomic best management practices are based on soft red winter wheat. Guidelines are available for producing winter malting barley in Ohio (Lindsey et al., 2020), but are limited for other specialty small grains. Agronomic management of specialty small grains in Ohio is an area of research that needs to be further explored.
FactSheet- To read the full FactSheet, please see: https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/anr-0154
Acknowledgments- This experiment was conducted in Ohio as part of a larger study initiated and directed by Dr. Shawn Conley and Dr. Haleigh Ortmeier-Clarke at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Special thanks go to Matt Davis and Matt Hankinson for establishing and managing the experiment in Ohio.
References
Lindsey, L., Shrestha, R., McGlinch, G., Culman, S., Loux, M., Paul, P., & Stockinger, E. (2020). Management of Ohio winter malting barley [PDF]. Retrieved from
stepupsoy.osu.edu/sites/hcs-soy/files/Malting%20Barley%20Handout-%20Spring%202020.pdf
United States Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service (USDA-NASS). (2024). Quick stats tools [Webpage]. Retrieved from
quickstats.nass.usda.gov/results/3BA3C0D7-24AE-36BD-A06F-2C39A833B3B9
U.S. Wheat Associates. (2023). Crop quality, soft red winter [Webpage]. Retrieved from
uswheat.org/crop-quality/soft-red-winter