Salois: Successful 2025 Crop Starts Now

The 2024 season was a struggle for many wheat growers across the Northwest.  Cat Salois with the McGregor Company said yields were “OK” thanks to precipitation that was just “OK” throughout the year.  She noted while late winter and early spring snow and rainfall was good for the region, April, May and June were all very dry months which hurt many spring wheat crops.

As growers focus on making the most out of 2025, Salois says two of the most important things growers can focus on are planting date and seeding rate.

“Planting date is one we've done a lot of research on how planting date, seeding rate and access to starter fertilizers or specifically phosphorus interact with each other," Salois said.  "We got to get that planting date right, so most of our region it's going to be the end of September.   And our data suggests for every day in October that gets delayed we're losing about a bushel of yield.”

Salois stressed that data shows how critical the planting date is and how important it is for growers to be prepared.  Salois added in in a rain fed situation, which covers a majority of the PNW, being able to vertically mine as much of the soil profile for moisture and nutrients is a huge advantage to growers.

“So, starter fertilizers where we can get that phosphorus ban is close to that emerging seed root becomes very impactful for creating those first and fall tillers in vertical root development, that is absolutely critical to mining that soil profile for the moisture that is deep within our 3’-4’ soil depths."

If you have a story idea for the PNW Ag Network, call (509) 547-1618, or e-mail glenn.vaagen@townsquaremedia.com