URBANA, Ill. — A University of Illinois soil fertility specialist is reporting “impressive” soft red winter wheat yields across three central-state research plots. Agronomist John Jones told Farm World that some of the higher yielding trial areas eclipsed 110 bushels per acre after experiencing early spring disease pressure. 

“This year we had wheat trials in east-central, central and western Illinois. We will have quite a few more planted come this fall,” said Jones, who began his career as a soil fertility specialist with the U of I in the fall of 2024. His specialty lies in refining and developing fertilizer recommendations for the state, including the Illinois Agronomy Handbook and Nitrogen Rate Calculator for corn and wheat (under development). 

As for statewide wheat yields reported by farmers, “I was a little surprised,” Jones said. “From what I’ve heard yields are fairly strong, which is a little surprising because of the moisture and humidity conditions that were likely present in the southern part of the state. We came out of a relatively dry fall in many parts of Illinois, so the planting dates I think were pretty reasonable around the state after a pretty fast dry down of corn and soybeans last fall. Our sites were mostly all planted before October 10, which really sets up yield potential for winter wheat.”

Jones’ wheat trial plots were harvested beginning around June 20 and completed 10 days later. Coming out of winter, Jones felt the test plots’ soil nitrate levels were relatively low due to the dryer fall. Depending on the location, however, Jones noticed “rapid flushes” of mineralization quickly forming in soils as spring progressed. 

“The wheat that had the higher amounts of fall nitrogen looked a little bit better (in) early spring. But as we kind of expected, wheat with more intensive nitrogen management that had early spring green-up and then at about V5 growth stage had split-applications, those plots performed quite a bit better. We had our spring nitrogen really dialed in,” said Jones. 

Combined wheat yields across the three research plots that Jones monitored averaged 111 bushels per acre (with optimal nitrogen rate applications). These trial plots ranged in geography from Perry County in western Illinois to Piatt County in east-central Illinois. 

“As we worked from west to east (Illinois) we went from a little bit lower than less-than three percent organic soils up to soils in eastern Illinois with fairly high organic matter, above four percent,” Jones observed. “We would expect our yield potential to increase as we came across that west-to-east gradient where we had our specific sites. These trials were designed to look at optimum nitrogen rates, optimum sulfur rates and optimum phosphorus sources for evaluating wheat yield. 

“Across these three sites our average optimum nitrogen rate was right around 100.5 pounds of N per acre. One of the things we observed was some lodging at our higher N rate treatments that were closer to 160 to 180 pounds. Lodging scores that were well above 5 and up to 7 and 8 on the scale, so we probably did lose a little bit of yield when at those high N rates, those above what we would consider optimum rates.”

Jones said the takeaways from these wheat trials include seeing a higher optimum N rate than the current Illinois Agronomy Handbook recommends for the current prices paid for wheat. “One of the things that is always considered is the price of nitrogen fertilizer and the price of the wheat sold,” he said of the Agronomy Handbook, adding that this is likely due to the higher yielding 2024-2025 crop being greater than what was used in the past to determine those numbers.

“We did see a sulfur response to wheat; we expected this across many sites but only saw it at the far western site where our soil organic matter levels are a little bit lower. One of the things we compared was using two different phosphorus sources for wheat with soybeans double-cropped afterwards. We saw no difference in the wheat yield so far between using triple-super phosphate or MAP (monoammonium phosphate) as a P source,” Jones reported.

The soil health agronomist said he thinks the second crop soybeans sown into wheat stubble by U of I researchers should be off to a good start. He expects emergence to go well, aided by some timely rainfall. 

There are, however, places in the state that remain dry in central and northern Illinois, said Jones, noting a lack of moisture when soil sampling this week. “Nitrogen availability is tied to how well water moves through the soil profile. Rainfall over the coming few weeks would help the corn crop during peak water uptake as it moves through tasseling and pollination,” Jones said.