Durum secrets.

[Daylate]

Just to confuse everyone, I have had way better luck with almost the complete opposite of rockpile. 100#N is no different than 60# as far as straw. High seeding rate has easier target timing for fuzz control. Guess it depends where you grow it and what you need out of it at harvest. We have never swathed it, always straight cut. Have tried all sorts of varieties, looking for a better one, but still put 90% to strongfield. Have to get seed from 200 miles away every year to find any without fusarium graminarium though.

[JDGreen]

Durum quality is difficult. Cwrs is way easier grade wise. Am building my own conditioning facility to help combat the grading issues.. Building, concrete work, and bins are in place. Equipment and millwrighting late fall and winter. Will be able to scalp, grade, sift, gravitate, color sort, and dry in one pass at 17mt per hour when finished.. This will enable us to have the quality the market demands .. There has been an incredible amount of money left on the table over the years with durum that you simply could do nothing about.. This will be a huge help for us year in and out I believe.. Agronomically I grow the shortest varieties I can get and straight cut it all..

[farmaholic]

rockpile, 40 pounds of N on a crop with high yield potential is only going to give me a piebald sample. How much N does a 60 plus crop need to yield that much and have an acceptable protein level? I agree with JD, there are shorter varieties out now that make the crop more manageable with higher N levels....

[rockpile]

Daylate, just to reaffirm, I quit growing Durum in about 96 or 97 and have been out of farming for 10 years. So I have zero experience with the new varieties and I'm sure they're far superior to what I grew. I should have mentioned that I seeded into chem fallow every year so might explain why 40 lbs N was enough. Also, I seeded with 8 inch spacing. But I can understand the dynamics of growing in a continuous rotation and much wetter climate. My target was 50 bu/ac at 60 lbs per bu. Best crop was 72 bu. Never had disease issues. A different area - we used to joke that when it rained for forty days and forty nights, we got a half inch.

[sumdumguy]

JDGreen, have you rounded your Durum up yet. I have been advised not to around it up, but have plane hired for tomorrow, ready to go cause frozen Durum is chicken feed for sire. Would appreciate your experience. Any one elses, too.

[JDGreen]

First 2/3 durum ready to cut and no preharvest treatment.. Last 1/3 will see some light frost damage.. Probly ready for preharvest glypho in 2-3 days.. Undecided if I will or not

[TOM4CWB]

Sumdumguy,

Spraying any cereal now, just before a frost... will not in all likelihood save any frost damage. Killing the weeds for next year needs to be the reason you are doing it... or have it done 2 weeks BEFORE it is going to freeze... not one or 2 days. Just saying!

[sumdumguy]

Guess frost is going to bite us in the keaster, no matter how you cut it, bad news.

[wmoebis]

May lose some grades to frost but it takes very little blending sometimes to raise that grade. Will more depend on amount of frost and mildew in sample.