Winter Cereal Acres Up in North Dakota and Minnesota 1-12-2012

For Immediate Release
January 12, 2012
Winter cereal acres up in North Dakota and Minnesota

Growers take advantage of prevent plant and dry fall

BISMARCK, ND - North Dakota farmers responded to some unique opportunities this past fall to increase their winter wheat acres. USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service this morning reported acreage in North Dakota was up by 75 percent to 700,000 acres.

“Growers were likely most influenced by the record number of prevent plant acres they experienced this year and several other factors that were favorable for planting winter wheat,” said Blake Vander Vorst, Ducks Unlimited senior agronomist. “When the weather finally turned dry in late summer, some of the fields dried out and the timing was right for planting winter wheat.”

Producers were also encouraged to plant more acres because of the crop’s benefits of workload spreading, higher yields and profitability. Winter wheat also helps growers to build their overall crop insurance proven yield for wheat. Federal crop insurance considers hard red spring wheat and winter wheat as one crop for crop insurance purposes in North Dakota and in some South Dakota counties.

The response of winter wheat variety trials to Stratego and Prosaro fungicide reflects the above average seasonal moisture in 2011 and the season-long disease pressure. Yields increased by an average of 25 percent for the fungicide-treated winter wheat in variety trials conducted at twelve locations in the Dakotas. South Dakota farmers decreased winter wheat seeded acreage by 18 percent, Montana’s acres decreased by 2 percent and Minnesota’s increased by 67 percent.

NASS yield data for North Dakota for the 13-year period from 1999 to 2011 reports winter wheat had a 19 percent yield advantage over spring wheat and a 1 percent to 30 percent yield advantage on any given year. Growers who work with DU commonly indicate a 20 percent to 30 percent increase over spring wheat and up to a 50 percent increase in years that are drier and warmer than normal.

About Winter Cereals: Sustainability in Action
With a shared vision of sustaining cereals agriculture, Winter Cereals: Sustainability in Action is a unique collaboration between Ducks Unlimited, Bayer CropScience, regional universities and Winfield Solutions. It embraces ongoing improvement of agriculture productivity through research and development in the Prairie Pothole Region, while improving the habitat important to North America’s waterfowl and other wildlife.
For more information on WCSIA, visit  www.wintercereals.us.

About Ducks Unlimited
With more than a million supporters, Ducks Unlimited is the world’s largest and most effective wetland and waterfowl conservation organization with more than 12 million acres conserved in North America. The United States alone has lost more than half of its original wetlands - nature’s most productive ecosystem - and continues to lose more than 80,000 wetland acres important to waterfowl each year. In Canada, up to 70 percent of wetlands have disappeared in settled areas and wetland loss continues at an alarming rate.
Additional information about Ducks Unlimited U.S. is available at:  www.ducks.org
About Bayer CropScience
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, nutrition and high-tech materials. Bayer CropScience, a subgroup of Bayer AG with annual sales of EUR 6.830 billion (2010), is one of the world’s leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of crop protection, non-agricultural pest control, seeds and traits. The company offers an outstanding range of products and extensive service backup for modern, sustainable agriculture and for non-agricultural applications. Bayer CropScience has a global workforce of 20,700 and is represented in more than 120 countries. This and further news is available at: www.press.bayercropscience.com.