Wheat Yield Contest

dmiller

Member
I'm a high school ag teacher.
I'm working on an idea this year to try and get kids more excited about agronomy.
I'm going to have them make a 12" deep, 2' by 2' box. We will then have each group grow a "field" of wheat. They will have to make management decisions (as we learn things throughout the semester) regarding seeding, water/fertility mgt. etc. and at the end of the time period we will hand harvest and weigh the "crop" to see which field did the best.
Any suggestions or thoughts on this??
 
will you have different varieties for them to choose from. Will it be a straight up yield contest or a profit contest? sounds like a lot of fun
 
Need to keep it fairly simple, they are mostly sophomores with little ag/plant science background.
I plan to give them three choices on seed but let them research and do what they want with seed count/lbs per acre, spacing and depth. Choice one will be treated/certified (left overs from my grain drill). Choice two will be clean from this years crop. Choice three will be not cleaned (put a bit of trash/chaff in it).
I will give them some basic numbers as far as costs for the various operations go, but that too will be a bit simplified.
We will compare yield as well as profitability.
 
Good for you! What a wonderful project. I wish their were more teachers like you to teach our children.
 
D why not see if you can get a couple different varieties of certified seed donated? In my mind it would make it a whole lot more scenitfic and model a true field trial.
 
I will have to see what I can come up with. Closest place to get certified that I know of is 40 miles away (I get mine there, but only once a year). I have about 20 lbs left in the bottom of my drill from earlier this spring, thought I'd try it.
Any other suggestions on how to make it more realistic/experiential without getting too complicated or requiring too much background knowledge from the kids?
 
I'm concerned that a 2x2 "above ground" box will be highly susceptable to winter kill of the plants. I'd be more inclined to plant the wheat into the ground "within" a 2x2 ft square...much less chance of winter kill. However, that then poses lots of other issues that you may or may not be able to work around.
 
For the amount of seed you need, I"ll bet contact via letter, email, or a phone call to explain your project would get you a big enough sample sent free to you. In fact, the "writing" portion could be a student project by itself. Maybe have them do research first and explain to the seed dealer why they chose a certain variety.
 
Another concept.....have them ASK for a recommendation of a variety. Different strokes for different folks? Stroke the ego? They might go for a full-fledged plot test, along with the box project. Compare the data.
 
Is this winter wheat? If so, you will have to put it outside to vernalize it. Otherwise, it won't yield nearly as much. Mike
 
no, even though we will be growing in the fall I plan to use spring wheat for the very reason you mention. They will be in the greenhouse so season will not matter.
 
Sounds like a cool idea, I wish one of my teachers would have thought of that back when I was in school! I just hope you don't have some school bully come through with a baseball bat when the crop is getting ripe and say "whoops,..Hailstorm!!"
 
Great idea, but like Mike said, wheat needs to 'vernalize' outside in cold weather to produce a crop. Contacting a local seed company or co-op may just net you the seed you'll need for the project. At harvest, you may also want to test your crop for moisture because of the differences in hybrids and problems caused by scab and other diseases.

Good luck.....
 

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