Winter Wheat Field Crop Variety Trials

winter wheat plots

Fall establishment and winter survival are key for winter wheat to reach its potential in Minnesota. Yield potential of winter wheat is higher than spring wheat, especially in the southern half of the state. Ideally, the winter wheat crop will have started to tiller in the fall, prior to freezing temperatures that force dormancy. Secondly, winter survival greatly improves if the crop does not break dormancy during a mid-winter thaw. No-till production practices help maintain snow cover, thereby improving winter survival. A stubble height of 4 to 6 inches is ideal but even shorter soybean stubble provides some protection.

The results of the variety performance evaluations are summarized in Tables 1 through 3. The winter wheat performance trials were conducted near Lamberton, Le Center and St. Paul in 2020. The past three growing seasons have been more challenging when compared to the previous three years. The extremely wet fall of 2019 resulted in the trial near Roseau not being seeded while the trial near Crookston was abandoned due to severe spring flooding. The trial near Becker, suffered severe drought stress and the data is included in this summary as the trial averaged less than 25 bu/acre.

Winter wheat field crop variety trial data

View the winter wheat yield data tables below in fullscreen.

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2025 winter wheat field crop variety trial narrative

The yield potential of winter wheat is higher than spring wheat, especially in the southern half of Minnesota, but fall establishment and winter survival are key to it reaching that potential. Ideally, a well-established winter wheat crop will have started to tiller in the fall prior to freezing temperatures that force dormancy. Winter survival also greatly improves if the crop does not break dormancy during a mid-winter thaw. No-till production practices help maintain soil moisture for rapid and even fall emergence and help maintain snow cover, thereby improving winter survival. A stubble height of 4 to 6 inches is ideal for catching snow, but even shorter soybean stubble provides some protection.

The winter wheat performance trials were located near Lamberton, Le Center, St. Paul, Becker, Crookston, and Roseau. The open winter caused more winterkill than most years and the trials near LeCenter, Becker, and Crookston were abandoned. The testing of AC Emerson, Keldin, MT Warcat, SY Wolverine, and WB4309 were discontinued. AP Sunbird, Bickford, MT Meadowlark, and WB4540 were tested for the first time.

The results of the variety performance evaluations are summarized in Tables 1 through 3. Winter hardiness, days to heading, plant height, and resistance to lodging have been converted to a 1-9 scale to allow for easier interpretation of the data (Table 1). Differences for all four characteristics are generally much less in the southern half of the state, while in the northern half of the state, the gap for those characteristics widens. Presenting averages of the actual data therefore can be misleading. Likewise, differences in test weight and grain protein are converted to a 1-9 scale. Varieties with lodging scores greater than 4 should be chosen with caution as lodging can reduce harvestability, yield, and quality. This is especially important if your soils are highly fertile.

For comparison, the single and multi-year grain yield averages of tested varieties as a percentage of the trial mean are presented in Table 2. The average yield across the six testing locations was 81 bu/acre in 2025. This compares to a three-year average of 82 bu/acre.

While all winter wheat varieties should be considered susceptible to very susceptible to Fusarium head blight (FHB) when compared to spring wheat varieties, they head earlier than spring wheat varieties and thereby have a better chance of escaping losses in grain yield, test weight, and presence of deoxynivalenol or vomitoxin, a major food safety concern that can result in steep discounts (Table 3). Most winter wheat varieties are also considered susceptible to very susceptible to leaf diseases - including powdery mildew (Table 3). Research results in the region indicate that fungicides applications to control leaf diseases early in the season and suppress scab at anthesis are nearly always warranted and should be considered an integral part of your production practices. Disease ratings for leaf diseases, stripe, leaf, and stem rust, and FHB are provided by North Dakota State University, South Dakota State University, and USDA-ARS.

Project Leaders

Jochum Wiersma and Jim Anderson

Test Plot Managers

Dave Grafstrom, Rafael Moreira, Mark Peterson, Susan Reynolds, Nathan Stuart, Donn Vellekson, and Travis Vollmer

Winter wheat field crop variety trial archive

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