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Nebraska Wheat
The latest Extension information on wheat production and management practices from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Crop Growth and Development
Understanding plant development can be helpful for making management decisions. The optimum timing of fertilizer, irrigation, herbicide, insecticide, and fungicide applications are best determined by crop growth stage rather than calendar date.
The impact of various crop stresses such as frost, heat, drought, disease, insect damage, or weed competition can be more accurately predicted with a clear understanding of the relationships between crop growth stage and plant response to stress.
Major growth stages:
Germination ► Seedling ► Tillering ► Stem elongation (jointing) ► Booting ► Heading ► Flowering (anthesis) ► Milk ► Dough ► Ripening
Additional Resources
- Wheat Growth Stages
Interactive tool from UNL Weedsoft consisting of images and descriptions (tool requires you to disable pop-up blockers). - Estimating Winter Wheat Grain Yields *PDF version (863 KB; 4 pages)
This NebGuide discusses three methods of estimating winter wheat yield. - Freeze Injury to Nebraska Wheat (*PDF, 4.58 MB; 11 pages)
- Wheat Kernel Damage from Oklahoma State University (*PDF, 1.84 MB; 12 pages)
- Plant Development--Growing Degree Days document from USDA (*PDF, 36 KB; 3 pages)
- Tillering Patterns and Wheat Plant Stresses document from USDA (*PDF, 38 KB; 4 pages)
*NOTE: Publication listed is a PDF document. You must have Adobe Reader installed on your computer for reading or printing. Download Adobe Acrobat Reader Free
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Dipak Santra
David Ostdiek
Bob Klein
Extension Specialists, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Wheat Facts
Winter wheat is one of the major field crops grown in Nebraska, along with corn and soybean.
- The greatest acreage of wheat planted since 2000 was 2.05 million in 2006-2007, and the lowest was 1.52 million in 2010-2011.
- Grain production since 2000 ranged from 50.16 million bushels in 2002 to 84.28 million bushels in 2007.
- The value of production since 2000 has ranged from $163 million in 2001 to $491 million in 2008.
- In 2007, more than 256,000 acres were grown under irrigation in the state.
- Nebraska is typically one of the top 10 winter wheat producing states in the U.S.
- Production occurs mainly in the western half of Nebraska.