A Raging-bull Wheat Market is the Financial Motivation for Rotating Cotton and Wheat

A soybean/cotton rotation? Sometimes.

A corn/cotton rotation? Absolutely.

A wheat/cotton rotation? When the cash price of wheat exploded through the $4 mark, you had to know it was coming.

In fact, it is here. And while planting wheat as a cover crop is not unusual — especially on the sandblasted High Plains of Texas, where Extension specialists say that it could be done on 300,000-400,000 acres — taking the wheat to maturity and harvesting it is unusual, no matter where it is planted.

Funny what $4.30-per-bushel wheat will do to a bottom line when $3.50, based on average yields, can return a nice profit. First cousins Rusty and Scott Wiggers, who farm along with Rusty’s dad Bonner, near the Louisiana-Delta town of Winnsboro, are taking full advantage of the run-up in prices.

Although they have not yet set a cash price, their average price on the Chicago Board of Trade is $4.30 for 2007; $4.80 for 2008. For wheat, the cash-price basis can run from 20-40 cents under, to 20 cents over the CBOT price, dependent upon the delivery month and delivery point. Cash prices generally are based on the July futures price, plus or minus the basis. The basis tends to narrow as the delivery month approaches. For example, in a normal market situation, the basis of +20 would be for immediate delivery in “nearby” months; -40 would be for delivery in “out” months, say July of 2007 and July of 2008.

They have booked 80% of their anticipated yields for both 2007 and 2008.

“We originally got into it to improve our organic matter and to help us conserve moisture,” says Rusty, who with Scott make up the fourth generation of Wiggers on the land. “We have ‘shallow’ soils and a cover crop can improve that. We don’t have deep topsoil; we are not blessed with deep, sandy soils. When we hit clay, the roots just won’t penetrate it.”

Wheat planted as cover began in 1992; the first for-harvest crop was planted in 2003.

“For several years we have recommended that some type of cover crop be planted in reduced-tillage cotton systems,” says Dr. Ralph Bagwell, Louisiana Extension entomologist. “Double cropping gives you more income potential on the same piece of ground.”

Water, Water

The Wiggers raise 1,692 acres of cotton and 822 acres of wheat. The wheat is planted exclusively under center-pivots because furrow irrigation of the cotton can be difficult following wheat. Wheat stalks and residue can inhibit the efficient flow of furrow water, and it’s almost impossible to water cotton up if it’s a dry year. Water will always run down hill, but not very fast when a dam of wheat straw is in the way.

“We hire custom wheat harvesters and some of them cut down to the cotton stubble,” says Bonner. “That leaves a lot of residue on the ground. If you cut it short, the residue is in clumps. If you cut it just below the heads, there will not be a big buildup of residue. And when you run the flail mower over the stalk that is left, the residue becomes more uniform.”

Another advantage of uniform distribution of residue is that the man on the planter can see the old row better, resulting in more precise cotton planting and straighter rows.

“We talked about using GPS to help us plant more accurately, but we haven’t taken the plunge,” says Rusty. “It would cost us $20,000-$40,000 to do it.”

Adds Scott: “An RTK system would be really nice. We can pick up the differential signal from several places.”
RTK is Real Time Kinematics and is so accurate that a single seed can be dropped into the hole left by a stalk from the previous year.

The Wiggers use custom wheat planters. “They come in and plant the wheat with four John Deere no-till drills,” Rusty says. “They literally follow the flail mowers. We can plant all the wheat in about a week.”

They plant their own cotton.

Getting Started

“It’s a real simple process to get into; just flail the cotton stalks and drill the wheat,” says Scott. “But you have to be ready in the spring; the wheat harvest has to be timely because you need to plant cotton right behind the combine.”

Adds Bagwell: “You need to recognize that by the time you finish cutting the wheat, it’s going to be fairly late in the cotton-planting season. You definitely do not want to go whole-hog over your whole farm. You want to be able to plant some of the cotton early because it helps spread out your risk.”

The Wiggers plant Terral 821 wheat seed because Scott says “it’s an early variety that grows shorter than some others. It gives you less straw to contend with and it has a good disease package. It’s a good yielder.” The variety yielded 65 bushels per acre last spring.

The planting rate started at 90 pounds per acre, but they moved to 120 pounds because this particular variety is large-seeded, reducing the number of seed per pound.

Row spacing is 7 1/2 inches for wheat and 38 inches for cotton. They used two split-shot applications of ammonium nitrate on the wheat — about a week apart — for a total of 110 units of nitrogen.

In years past, following cotton with wheat could cause herbicide-carryover concerns, but Roundup Ready technology makes that much less of a problem.

“There are some herbicides that you cannot use on cotton if you are going to follow it with wheat,” Scott says. “But all we put out was two shots of Roundup and some prometryne and MSMA. None of that will affect the wheat.”

All of the Wiggers’ cotton varieties are Roundup Ready or Roundup Ready Flex. This year they planted 800 acres of DP 555 BG/RR, 700 acres of DP 445 BG/RR, 50 acres of DP 113 B2RF and 67 acres of BW-4021 B2F. Their refuge was 100 acres of DP 434 RR.