A BOOST WITH WHEAT

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There are many benefits of growing wheat — erosion control, nutrient cash crop, cash and cover crop, weed suppressor, soil builder and organic matter source, and spring pasture.

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DEKALB COUNTY FARMER GETS BOOST WITH WHEAT

By Jeannine Otto AgriNews Publications

For Gene Larson, raising wheat is about more than tradition — it’s a practice that makes dollars and sense.

“I grow wheat for several reasons and it’s not all for economic reasons,” said Larson, who started farming in 1975.

Today, Larson, who also serves as Shabbona Township road commissioner, a post he’s held for 24 years, has mostly stepped back from his farming operation. His son, Dan, has taken over the bulk of the farm duties.

But Gene Larson still farms around 200 acres.

“I never want to quit farming. I think that’s something that’s always with you and you never want to leave or give it up, so I’m still farming enough acres to keep my interest,” he said.

Raising wheat in northern Illinois was more common when Larson farmed with his own father.

“I helped my dad farm and we always grew wheat, so I just continued on with it,” he said.

That continues to this day.

Larson said he finds that raising wheat can be a benefit to his bottom line in a couple of different ways.

“One of the reasons I grow wheat is for the crop rotation. You can put a crop of corn on a wheat field and it’s good for 10 bushels an acre more on the corn. I’ve seen that, year in and year out,” he said.

Wheat, which is harvested in midsummer, also provides another boost.

“It’s a little cash flow in the middle of summer, when you get kind of a dry spell. You have real estate taxes due at the end of September and it gives you that little cash flow that you can use to pay expenses at that time of year,” Larson said.

“It’s a little cash flow in the middle of summer, when you get kind of a dry spell. You have real estate taxes due at the end of September and it gives you that little cash flow that you can use to pay expenses at that time of year.”

The wheat crop also offers a fertilizer boost in the form of wheat straw, which Larson keeps on the field and then tills back into the ground.

“I’m not a big fan of baling wheat straw because there’s a lot of fertilizer value in wheat straw. I like to run it through the combine, blow it back onto the ground and plow it under for the corn crop the next year. There’s a lot of potash in wheat straw,” he said.

Harvesting the crop gives the Larsons an opportunity to troubleshoot any equipment problems and tune up combines and tractors before the corn and soybean harvest rush.

“My son and I like to get the equipment out and try it out before we get into the big fall harvest. You go out in July with your combine and semis and you see what needs fixing before you get into the big rush for fall, so that’s an advantage. It gives you a chance to see if there’s something you missed last fall in the combine when you put it away. Then you’ve got the rest of the summer to work on it and get it fixed,” Gene Larson said.

He utilizes fungicide applications on his wheat, something that is necessary, he believes, in the colder and wetter climate of northern Illinois.

“Wheat doesn’t like wet, cool weather and that’s when you get diseases, like scab. Fungicides are something I’ve been doing lately that I never used to do and it does pay. It’s $30 an acre and you have to fly it on, but you’ll get that back out of it,” he said.

Larson said the flat, black soil of northern Illinois, famous for recordbreaking corn and soybean yields, isn’t particularly conducive to large wheat yields.

“DeKalb County is known for its flat black soils. We grow corn like nobody else. Wheat typically doesn’t like flat, black ground because that soil has a tendency to be wet and wet weather brings disease in wheat and that’s what really hurts your yield,” he said.

Some of Larson’s best wheat years happened in years that were drier.

“I have 20 acres of wheat this year. Last year we had 50 acres. It was one of my best crops of wheat, moneywise, that I’ve ever grown in my 40 plus years of farming. We got almost $7 a bushel for it and there was no dock. The two best years I had growing wheat were 2012 and last year,” he said.

Larson sells his wheat to the DeLong Co. elevator in Waterman.

According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, in 2021, DeKalb County farmers planted 6,500 acres of winter wheat and harvested 5,950 acres, with a countywide yield of 469,000 bushels and an average countywide yield of 78.8 bushels per acre.

Dan Larson is carrying on the tradition of growing wheat and one of the farmers he rents ground from even requires it.

“He rents a farm from a man who always had wheat. It’s in the lease that you have to grow so many acres of wheat each year. He believes in that rotation. He’s an older guy and that’s how he farmed and that’s how he wants it done,” Gene Larson said.

Jeannine Otto can be reached at 815-410-2258, or jotto@shawmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at: @AgNews_Otto.