Wheat Harvest 2016 underway: combining effects of Polysulphate on yield

21 July 2016

The northern hemisphere wheat harvest is underway. While eyes may be focussed on the grain being gathered, particularly in Europe with the start of combining in July, it is always a good time to focus on what farmers can do to maximise yield and quality through the use of natural polyhalite fertilizer, now succinctly explained in our Wheat fertilization with Polysulphate advisory leaflet, now available for download.

Wheat prices still under pressure
The world wheat market looks as though it will be well supplied for 2016-17, according to international grain commentators. Good supply will keep prices under pressure. This in turn will make farmers think carefully about the value, or return on investment, they get from inputs such as fertilizer.

Guide to balancing fertilizer for wheat
The recommendation is simple. One Polysulphate application can supply all the sulphur and calcium the wheat crop needs. Application is in early spring for winter wheat or in the seedbed at sowing of spring wheat.

Due to the multi-nutrient composition of Polysulphate, the crop will also get good supplies of potassium and magnesium, 50% or more of what will be removed in the grain.

Banking those benefits
The benefits of using Polysulphate fertilizer, at recommended dose (100 kg/ha) to wheat crop yielding grain 6 t/ha, are many. They include higher yield, better quality of grain proteins, improved baking quality and increased nitrogen use efficiency. All these will contribute to maximising returns from the harvest.

Combining yield with the legacy of fertilizer use chosen
The northern hemisphere wheat harvest begins in March in India and finishes in Canada in October. It is interesting to note that this transnational harvest accounts for well over 80% of global wheat production.

Wheat farmers will be able to weigh up this year’s harvest against the fertilizer they chose to use and we hope with the evidence summarised in Wheat fertilization with Polysulphate that more farmers will see the sense of considering Polysulphate as one of their inputs for the next crop and harvest 2017.

In the meantime, here’s hoping for good harvest conditions for all those involved in harvest teams, wherever in the northern hemisphere they are at work in 2016, as they bring in this year’s wheat crop.