Irrigated Spring Wheat Category Winner Bins 204.83 bpa

Talk about the early bird getting the worm. Washington farmer Derek Friehe gets a head start on the spring wheat season by planting some of his crop in the fall. It's a move that he credits with catapulting him to the top of the 2025 National Wheat Yield Contest irrigated spring wheat category with an entry of 204.83 bushels per acre (bpa).

Now in its 10th year, the yield contest organized by the National Wheat Foundation (NWF) has encouraged wheat growers to strive for exceptional yields, high quality and stronger profitability while trying new and innovative management strategies that drive productivity and marketability. DTN/Progressive Farmer is the official media outlet of the competition.

The AgriPro AP Venom hard red spring wheat was planted Oct. 8, 2024. It takes a special kind of hardiness for a spring variety to withstand winter conditions, noted Friehe. In fact, taking that risk doesn't always pan out. For example, the Washington farmer planted spring wheat in the fall the previous season, but a January warm-up got the crop excited only to be killed out by a single-digit cold snap that followed.

"It's a gamble. You either hit a home run, or you strike out," Friehe said. "But we have enough experience with the practice now to say that yield is better when it does work. The same AP Venom variety planted as a spring crop using the same agronomic practices yielded on average 20 bpa to 40 bpa less this year.

"Planting in the fall gives the crop a longer time to tiller and grow. Fall-planted fields are green, growing and tillering before the spring crop has even emerged. It also allows the crop to pollinate earlier and avoid some heat events," he said, adding that harvest on the fall-planted crop runs about one week earlier than the spring crop.

Friehe has been in the winner circle before. In 2022, he took the irrigated spring wheat category with a 195.4 bpa entry of AP Venom planted in the fall. He also earned the Bin Buster title in the 2020 irrigated winter wheat category with a yield of 206.7 bpa of Limagrain Cereal Seeds Jet.

He credits Friehe Farms Agronomy Manager Heath Gimmestad for helping to fine-tune management to keep the crop happy. It was also a stellar weather year, and because the crop is irrigated, it never thirsted -- receiving about 18 inches of water in-season to supplement seasonal rainfall totals that are lucky to reach 8 inches a year.

"Overall, this is the best wheat crop we've ever had. Our contest entry wasn't even our best field," he said. "The first field we opened was just a little bit better, but we'd slated this one for the contest. In all, we had four or five fields that averaged in the 190 (bpa) range, and they were all fall planted."

Friehe is anxious to see where protein levels land and acknowledges that it can take additional nitrogen to get a protein bump when yielding at these levels. This year's fertility program included 25 pounds of sulfur and 83 pounds of nitrogen per acre in the fall. Another 65 pounds of nitrogen was applied prior to jointing and 91 pounds before leaf extension. Tissue testing at flag leaf helps fine-tune the fertility program.

The winning entry was planted at 85 pounds per acre and followed potatoes in the rotation.

"The fields that get planted in the fall are dictated by what potatoes are harvested early enough to allow us to get fertilizer on and the ground prepped. We like to plant in the early-to-mid-October window to allow the wheat to get some growth, but not too much," he said.

The farm also grows Kentucky bluegrass, which is planted in August. Fall-planted wheat or green peas are crops that thread the rotational needle and fit nicely between potatoes and bluegrass in the rotation, he noted.

Friehe has few complaints about weeds or pests this year, although aphids are always on his radar. Lodging, however, hit a little harder this year, despite the use of a plant growth regulator (PGR) to control plant height. The growth hormone shortens plant internodes and increases the size and stiffness of the stem.

"We missed getting it on a few acres, but even where we used a PGR, we had more lodging than we've seen for a long time. Maybe it was because the heads were so heavy," he said.

Entering the National Wheat Yield Contest is a litmus test that keeps Friehe trying new things.

"There aren't very many opportunities to really see where you stand or compare how we are doing," he said. "The contest is not hard to enter. It's fun, and it's an opportunity to showcase our farm, our growing region and that fact that we have done well in it gives us confidence about our growing practices," he said.

A 200-plus bushel wheat crop requires some added patience though. "We couldn't harvest much faster than 1.2 miles per hour," he said. "It makes for some long days, but the hopper fills fast."

2025 National Spring Wheat Irrigated Category:

Bin Buster: Derek Friehe

Moses Lake, Washington

Variety: AgriPro AP Venom

Yield: 204.83 bpa

First Place: Dallin Wilcox

Rexburg, Idaho

Variety: WestBred WB7589

Yield: 190.10 bpa

Second Place: Jess Blatchford

Baker City, Oregon

Variety: WestBred WB6430

Yield: 168.89 bpa

Read DTN's story compiling all of the category winners here: https://www.dtnpf.com/….

Pamela Smith can be reached at pamela.smith@dtn.com

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