2018 National Wheat Yield Contest to Showcase Greater Grain

National Wheat Yield Contest deadline is May 15

The National Wheat Foundation is proud to once again host the National Wheat Yield Contest. This yield contest was held for the first time in 2016 and was well-received by wheat growers across the United States. The contest offers growers the opportunity to compete with their peers across the United States and learn from each other innovative techniques to improve wheat productivity on their farms. In its third year, the contest continues to drive innovation in the industry by spotlighting the best practices among American wheat growers.

The deadline for the contest is May 15 for winter wheat. An entry fee of $125 per variety entered is due upon submission.

The Kansas Wheat Yield Contest has been discontinued to allow farmers to compete on a national level.

There are two contest sectors – winter wheat and spring wheat, and two sub-sectors – irrigated and dryland.

This year, the contest is adding a quality requirement, raising the bar for what constitutes the greater grain among U.S. wheat growers. This new quality requirement addresses the market opportunities and needs that will help U.S. wheat growers to maximize profitability as they grow the greater grain and allow the industry to compete with wheat growers around the world.

2017 National Wheat Yield Winners from Kansas included Brandon Friesen from Meade, Kan., with a yield of 115.26 bushels per acre with WestBred variety WB-Grainfield, dryland, and Nathan Franklin from Atwood, Kan., with a yield of 144.07 bushels per acre with WestBred variety WB-Cedar, irrigated. Neil Bekemeyer from Washington was a runner-up in the irrigated category with a 96.2 bushel per acre yield on his SY Monument. Dryland runners-up were Tyler Ediger from Meade with a 110.98 bushel per acre yield with WB4303 and Alec Horton of Leoti with a 95.3 bushel per acre yield with WB-Grainfield. Horton also won the western Kansas region in the Kansas Wheat Yield Contest. Richard Seck of Hutchinson won the central region of the Kansas contest with a 115.29 bushel per acre yield on his LCS Mint. Overall Kansas winner in the final year of the Kansas Wheat Yield Contest was Spencer West of LeRoy, with a yield of 123.75 bushels per acre on WB-Cedar.

The contest’s objectives are to drive innovation in the industry, enable knowledge transfer between growers, encourage the use of available technology and identify top wheat growers across the United States. The contest features two primary competition sectors, winter wheat and spring wheat, and two sub-sectors, dryland and irrigated. The top five winners from each sector/subsector will be recognized nationally, including at the 2019 Commodity Classic to be held February 28 - March 2, 2019, in Orlando, Fla.

The 2017 contest had a record-breaking 287 entries from 27 states, and this year’s contest is expected to continue growing the momentum of sharing best practices and techniques throughout the industry.

Kansas farmers must be a member of the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers to compete. Please make sure you are a member in good standing before completing and submitting the NWYC Entry Form.

More information about the contest is available at yieldcontest.wheatfoundation.org. To join the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers, please visit kansaswheat.org/advocacy.