Crops

Mr. Wisness

Crops Important to ND

• Hard Red Spring Wheat

• Durum Wheat• Barley• Flax• Sunflower• Oats• Dry Edible Beans

• Sugarbeets• Potatoes• Rye• Hay• Winter Wheat• Corn• Soybeans

Wheat

• Commercial Classes– Hard Red Spring Wheat

• Bread

– Hard Red Winter Wheat

• Bread

– Durum

• Pasta

– Soft Red Winter

• Cake, biscuit, cracker, pastry

– White

• Pastry

Wheat

• Most important world crop; both in acreage and production

• Approximately 75 to 80% US acreage is winter wheat– Requires a cold period before switching to

reproductive growth (vernalization)

• In general, wheat is unsatisfactory on very sandy soils or poorly drained soils

Wheat

• Cool-season crop– Minimum Temp.

• 37-39 degrees F

– Optimum Temp.• 77 degrees F

– Maximum Temp.• 86-89 degrees F

Wheat grades

• Based on quality and condition

• Quality– Plumpness, soundness, foreign material

• Condition– High moisture, odor, smut

• Legal Weight– 60 pounds per bushel

• US Grade #1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or US Sample Grade

Hard Red Spring Wheat

• North Dakota ranks #1

• Can be grown under a wide range of soil conditions and rainfall– Best adapted to fertile, well drained silt and

clay loam soils

• In early stages of development, can withstand temperatures as low as 15 degrees F

Hard Red Spring Wheat

• Winters in ND are too severe for winter wheat

• Limited rainfall during the growing period results in wheat that is high in protein content

• HRSW contains a large amount of gluten– A proteinlike, semielastic substance which permits

the dough to leaven or expand into large, light porous loaves

Durum Wheat

• ND ranks #1

• Grown because it withstands drought better and is more resistant to most diseases than HRSW

• Flour not suited for breadmaking

• Made into semolina– A granular flour used in making pasta products

HRSW and Durum

• Diseases– Smut– Black Stem Rust– Scab– Ergot– Wheat Stem Sawfly

Oats

• Ranks 5th in world for cereals

• ND ranks #1

• Cool season crop

Uses of Oat grain

– Livestock feed• More than 80 % is used for feed or exported

• High in protein content

• Excellent feed for horses

• Used as a forage crop for hay

– Food products• < 5 % used for food for humans

• Rolled oats used for oatmeal, oatcakes, and cookies

Barley

• ND ranks #1

• Used for:– Livestock feed– Malting purposes– Human Food

• In the US– Feed is approximately 65 to 70 %– Malt is approximately 25 to 30 %

Barley

• Cool-season crop

• Summer annual in North Dakota and Great Plains

• Widely adapted because it is dependable under salinity, frost or drought

Barley

• Classes

• 6-row barley– 3 spikelets per rachis node– 1 fertile floret per spikelet

• 2-row barley– 3 spikelets per rachis node– Only central spikelet has a fertile floret

Barley

• Malting Barley– Used for brewing– Must be plump, uniform, high in quality, low in

nitrogen or protein, and bright in color– Free from broken and skinned kernels– Contain no more than 13 % moisture for

storage

Rye

• Cool-season crop

• Mostly grown as a winter annual

• Leading producing countries are in Europe (Russia and Germany)

• Hardiest of all the cereals

• More productive than other grains on infertile, sandy or acidic soils

Rye

• Only small grain that is cross-pollinated– causes it to be very susceptible to ergot

• Another problem– Can mix with wheat in the field or seed

• Uses of Rye grain– 50 to 60 % is fed or exported– Food products

• Rye bread is dense and rises slightly• Usually mixed with wheat flour

Flax

• ND ranks #1• Cool season crop• Tolerates frost in the seedling stage• Requires 18 to 30 inches of moisture

annually• Poor competitor with weeds

– Good cultural practices and herbicides are important

Flax

• Used to make linseed oil– Seed contains 35 to 45 percent oil– Paints and varnishes– Linoleum and oilcloth– Printers ink

• Linseed oil meal for livestock feed– 35 percent protein that is 85 percent digestible

Sunflowers

• ND ranks #1

• Classes– Oil-type

• 90 % of US acreage

• Edible and industrial oil

– Non-oil type• 10% of US acreage

• Whole roasted

• Shelled for baking and candies

• Bird Food

Sunflowers

• Uses– Edible oil is major use– Sunflower Oil Meal– Whole kernel and nutmeat specialty markets

Sunflowers

• Characteristics– Cross-pollinated– Short-day plant– Relatively draught tolerant and grows well on

many soil type

Soybeans

• World’s most important edible vegetable oil

• US is world’s leading producer

• Short day plant

• Warm Season plant

• Member of the legume family

Soybeans

• A minimum of 120 frost-free days, with a mean summer temperature above 70 degrees F is needed to produce acceptable yields

• Self-pollinated• Harvesting

– In fall when seedpods turn yellow and dry down to about 14 percent moisture

– Cut and threshed by a combine

Soybeans

• Uses– Edible oil

• Seed is 20 to 24 % oil

– Soybean Oil Meal• Popular Feed for Livestock

– Green Manure crop

Sugarbeets

• Red River Valley is leading producer in US

• Must have a contract with a factory

• Account for 35 to 40 % of world’s sugar production

• Biennial for seed production

Sugarbeets

• Cool-season crop– Optimum temperature for growth is 75 degrees F– Cool autumn weather favors sugar storage

• Uses– Sugar– By-products

• Beet Pulp

• Molasses (Livestock feed)

Sugarbeets

• Harvesting– Normally at end of first season of growth– Approximately 5 to 7 months after planting

Potatoes

• Tubers originate as swellings at the ends of rhizomes

• Herbaceous perennial dicot but grown as an annual

• Cool-season crop (Northern lattitudes)

• Well-distributed rainfall of 12 to 24 inches over a 3 to 4 month growing season is best

Potatoes

• Uses– Carbohydrate source

• Tuber is 65 to 80 % starch

– Human consumption• Fresh - 35 %

• Frozen - 35%

• Dehydrated, chips, canned - 20 %

– Livestock feed

Potatoes

• Grown from vegetative parts, not seed

• Growers sow pieces of potato from which new plants grow and produce tubers

Corn

• Types of corn– Dent (Yellow or White Class)

• Field corn grown in US

– Popcorn• Can explode to 20 times its size

– Flint• Field corn grown in South America & Europe

– Flour• used in making breads

Corn

• Important World Food Crop

• Grown in every US state

• Warm-season crop– Minimum temperature is 50 degrees F– Maximum temperature is 86 degrees F– Very little corn is grown where the mean summer

temp. is less than 66 degrees F– Short-day plant– Cross-pollinated

Corn

• Uses– Livestock feed

• 85 to 90 % of US production is used for feed

– Human uses• Food

• High fructose corn syrup

• Ethanol

Forage crops

• Alfalfa

• Sweetclover

• Smooth bromegrass

• Wheatgrass

• Kentucky Bluegrass

• Sudangrass

• Millets

Forage crops

• Crops grown as feed for animals and used in the form of pasture, hay or silage

• There are 3.5 million acres of hay in ND– Approximately one half of that is alfalfa

• Livestock feed– 60 % of all feed units consumed by livestock in the

US are furnished by forages

– 95 % of all feed units consumed by beef cows in ND are furnished by forages

Forage crops

• Other benefits– Soil improvement– Soil protection– Fixation of atmospheric nitrogen