Non-Irrigated Winter Wheat:
Drill Type:	455 John Deere Customized seeder
Variety:	Jagger
Nitrogen:	less than 30 units
Harvest Date:	06-02-2008
Yield:	113 bu./acre
Test Weight:	66.3 lbs./bu.

75 Bushels Better

OKLAHOMA (2008) -  Kiowa County, Oklahoma wheat producer John Bink recently harvested a crop of non-irrigated winter wheat that yielded 113 bushels per acre with less than 30 units of nitrogen. That's 75 more bushels per acre than the 2008 average state-wide yield of 38 bushels. Overall, the crop of Jagger wheat averaged an impressive 80 bushels per acre that tested at 66.3 lbs. per bushel. According to Bink, it's a personal best made possible by switching four years ago to a program focused on "Below Ground Management."

"Below Ground Management" recommends gradually easing off chemically intensive above-ground management practices in favor of a system that builds soil quality.

Bink says the program "improves nutrient availability and uptake and helps to curtail insect, disease and weed pressures -- producing a high-quality, high-yield crop for less."

One of my neighbors came to my field and and climbed the combine because he couldn't believe my wheat tested so high after five inches of rain in mid-June.

For 10 years Bink had followed a heavy anhydrous fertility program and top dressed with 100 lbs. of 46-0-0. But as farm production costs rose he found that program no longer worked for him economically.

With Below Ground Management Bink says his wheat yields have stayed consistently high while he has slowly lowered the quantity of applied fertilizer.

"One of my neighbors actually came to my field and climbed the combine because he couldn't believe my wheat tested so high after five inches of rain in mid-June."

"The quality is excellent," he says. "I've never seen a healthier plant in my 11 years producing wheat.  The color is amazing. You can literally see the line where my field stops and my neighbor's begins."

Commercial growers for 11 years, John Bink and his family produce wheat, cotton, alfalfa and various types of hay on their family-owned land in Southwestern Oklahoma.

Wheat Field Comparison Photos - (Left:) Bink Farms wheat field with improved soil quality (Right:)  Neighbor's adjacent wheat field which was planted the same day. Click image for larger view