Winter Wheat hits jackpot in Manitowoc County

[AJE]

Farmers hit the jackpot with winter wheat

By Ed Byrne
Herald Times Reporter
July 26, 2007

WRIGHTSTOWN — Farmers in Northeastern Wisconsin who planted winter wheat last fall are probably feeling a lot like someone who picked the right lottery numbers.


http://www.htrnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...6/1358/MANnews

Excerts:

Most people think Kansas and Nebraska when talking about wheat. In Wisconsin, it is generally used as a cover crop....
But this year, wheat is more than something just to hold the topsoil in place....On Tuesday, prices for winter wheat were $5.04 per bushel at Chilton, $5.05 at Readfield and $5 at Winnebago. ...There's a good reason for the higher prices.

:arrow: With all the flooding on the lower plains “Grain Belt” of Kansas, Missouri and northern Oklahoma have created an avenue right to the heart of Wisconsin's crops.

[AJE]

Pioneer Press
March 11, 2007
By JOHN HARTZELL


Winter wheat, a crop once almost unheard of in Wisconsin, is taking root in America's Dairyland even as other states are growing less of it.

Wisconsin farmers planted 280,000 acres of winter wheat for the current growing season, double the total in 2000. The reason: simple economics.

"It's a good cash crop. That's the name of the game," said Howard Delsman, who raises it northwest of Manitowoc.


Grain from winter wheat often is used for making pastries, and straw produced from the plant is also sold. Wisconsin growers have two built-in markets within the state's dairy industry for that byproduct - as bedding for cows and as a feed additive.

Winter wheat can be grown in Wisconsin - even though its farm fields freeze during the winter - because the crop goes dormant after initial growth in the fall, Gaska said. The grain comes out of dormancy in early or mid-April and the crop is harvested in mid-July.

http://www.agobservatory.org/headlines.cfm?refid=97804