Evaluating Organic Bread Wheat Production within New England Dairy Cropping Systems.

The demand for local, organic bread wheat may be an economic and agronomic opportunity for New England organic dairy producers.  To be a viable crop on dairy farms, bread wheat must produce adequate yields and grain protein levels to be profitable, and must complement the production of high-priority feed crops such as perennial forage to fit with the goals of the farm. The objective of the research was to evaluate the performance of bread wheat in various representative feed-based cropping sequences with an emphasis on forage production.  Treatments consisted of six three-year cropping sequences all ending in re-established forage compared with a continuous, “unimproved” forage control.  Five of the sequences included wheat and differed in terms of what crop preceded wheat (a short season variety of corn silage, a full season variety of corn silage, soybean, or a forage sod mix) and which type of wheat (winter or spring) was grown.  The sixth sequence included two years of a full season variety of corn silage.  Results showed that wheat yield (p < 0.001) and grain protein (p < 0.001) were strongly affected by wheat type.  Grain yield was greater in winter wheat but had lower grain protein concentration compared with spring wheat.  Grain protein concentrations were higher when winter wheat (p < 0.05) followed forage versus annual crops.  Only spring wheat met the bread flour industry standard for grain protein concentration.  Further work will compare forage yield and quality in terms of projected milk yield using MILK 2000 (MILK ver. 7.54, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI) as well as overall profitability of each cropping sequence.