Are Small Grains Profitable?
Entering October, is it too late to plant small grains (wheat or possibly barley) and is it even profitable to do so? It is not too late but with wheat at roughly $4.50 to $5.00, it is difficult to make wheat profitable. Most can justify planting wheat at $6/bushel. However, $4.50 corn is not much better. Planting wheat helps improve the crop rotation, reduce weeds, and may increase other crop yields by 10%. Wheat and other small grain crops like barley, cereal rye, oats are alternative crops. The market for barley and oats are fairly limited. Due to high test weight oats grown in Canada and few breweries in Ohio, oat and barley markets are slim. At around $12/bushel for cereal rye as a cover crop, cereal rye can be profitable with good yields. Wheat straw can be harvested to gain income and double crop soybeans are another option to add income. It’s the wheat roots that add most of the soil organic matter (80-90%), so harvesting the wheat straw is a good practice. Anything plante...