Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 4
Systems-Based Wheat
Management Strategies
Jeffrey T. Edwards
SUMMARY
management systems. There are several
reasons for this, but recent advances in
planting technologies and crop rotation are
resulting in increased adoption of no-till
by wheat producers.
(4) Further genetic improvement is needed to
introduce cultivars with improved stress
tolerance to reclaim production areas that
have been lost due to nonoptimal soil pH
or salt accumulation.
(5) The success in systems-based wheat
production strategies can serve as
models for other grass-based systems,
such as grass-based cellulosic biofuel
production.
(1) Systems-based management approaches have
increased wheat yield over the past few decades
by matching genotype to management style.
The intensive wheat management system is
an excellent example of how this concept can
be utilized to its fullest potential.
(2) Integrated systems, such as the dual-
purpose wheat production system, have
demonstrated how producers can optimize
many parts of a complex system to improve
profi tability of the system as a whole.
(3) Wheat has lagged other grain crops in
adoption of conservation-tillage and no-till
INTRODUCTION
producers and will outline a few of the challenges
and questions that remain unanswered.
This chapter will focus on management of the
wheat crop and how management factors combine
to create a production system. It is, therefore,
prudent to discuss what is meant by the word
management
. Webster's defi nes “manage” as
to
handle or direct with a degree of skill
(Woolf 1979).
Too often management is confused with scouting,
which is defi ned as
to explore an area to obtain
information
(Woolf 1979). To properly manage
wheat requires foresight and planning and is pro-
active in nature. In contrast, scouting is primarily
reactive in nature and is only one component of a
management strategy. This chapter will put forth
examples of wheat management systems which
incorporate proactive management strategies to
successfully address unique challenges faced by
ADVANCES IN WHEAT MANAGEMENT
Yield building versus yield
protecting factors
The most recent edition of
Wheat and Wheat
Improvement
was published in 1987 (Heyne 1987).
This publication remains a valuable resource that
outlines and defi nes many of the basic tenets of
wheat production. In addition, numerous exten-
sion management guides are available to provide
guidance in the basics of wheat production (Alley
et al., 1993; Bitzer et al., 1997; Royer and Krenzer
2000; Wiersma and Bennett 2001). The majority
