Small grain production is mainly focused on cover crops in our area with a limited number of acres harvested for grain and straw.  This trend is increasing due to the demand for cover crop seed.  In 2020, we saw a historical freeze late in the season that damaged the small grain crops, severely hurting the yield potential resulting in the need for management plans to be altered for the remaining crop production.  

Two separate freeze events occurred on April 15-16 with temperatures dropping to 27 degrees for an extended period of time.  Agriculture agents and specialist from UK visited numerous fields to assess the damage.  It was determined that wheat crops had significant damage to the pollination that was occurring leaving the seed formation empty.  Some crops that were either earlier or later in the pollination process did produce some seed, but since the wheat head pollinates over a period of time, the majority of the crops showed various level of yield loss from 50% to over 70%.  

A second freeze very late in the season occurred on May 9th with a temperature of 28 degrees for an extended period of time took place and further damaged late wheat and rye crops.  Stem damage was evident on many fields leaving concern for lodging and breakage of the stem in wind storms.  Rye appeared to have minimal damage with yield potential still near average.  

With this information, producers that had market contracts were able to make decisions and adjust their contracts to reflect the lower yield potential.  Also, with the lower yields, producers now knew that any further applications of fungicide would not enhance the yield, thus saving them money.  Many producers that focused on straw production, harvested early so they could plant double crop soybeans sooner.