The more than 55 million people who live in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States want to purchase processed grain foods such as bread and other dough products made from hard, or bread, wheat. 

Cereal crops are used throughout the world for livestock feed. When they are managed properly they provide excellent grazing and high-quality silage or hay.

Soil electrical conductivity (EC) is a measurement that correlates with soil properties that affect crop productivity, including soil texture, cation exchange capacity (CEC), drainage conditions, organic matter level, salinity, and subsoil characteristics. This publication discusses: 1) How, with field verification, soil EC can be related to specific soil properties that affect crop yield, such as topsoil depth, pH, salt concentrations, and available water-holding capacity; 2) Soil EC maps often visually correspond to patterns on yield maps and can help explain yield variation; and 3) Other uses of soil EC maps (Table 1), including developing management zones, guiding directed soil sampling, assigning variable rates of crop inputs, fine tuning NRCS soil maps, improving the placement and interpretation of on-farm tests, salinity diagnosis, and planning drainage remediation.

A forage production trial of commercial barley, oat, rye, triticale, and wheat cultivars has been conducted yearly from 1994-2009 at the Northern Piedmont AREC, Orange.  Long-term results were published in 2004 and are available on the web at http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/418/418-019/418-019.html

Perennial cool-season forage grasses are the foundation of ruminant livestock production systems in Virginia. Sound management of these grasses begins with proper species and variety selection. This report is a summary of forage variety trials performed with perennial cool-season grasses at Virginia Tech Agricultural Research and Extension Centers (ARECs) from 2002 through 2004. It includes trials seeded at the Southern Piedmont AREC (SPAREC) at Blackstone and at the Tidewater AREC, Suffolk, September 2001 and harvested for three years (2002 through 2004) 

Wheat development is affected by nutrients, water, light, and other factors; but temperature consistently determines how quickly or slowly plants move ahead in forming leaves, roots, tillers, and grain heads. The plant's development stage at any point during the season is affected very predictably by how warm or cool the season has been up to that point. This knowledge, combined with educated guesses about how the rest of the growing season will progress, can be extremely valuable information to the grower, who can then make more informed management decisions to include predicting the maturity/harvest schedule.

With adequate soil moisture, early-planted corn generally out yields late-planted corn due to its better use of sunlight during June and July. The goal for most producers is to plant as early as possible and still achieve rapid emergence and a good crop stand.

How a corn crop develops is affected by many factors: fertilization, rainfall, sunny or cloudy weather, hybrid or maturity group, etc. But these factors generally play second fiddle to temperature in determining when a corn crop tassels or is ready to harvest. Many years of observation have shown that plant development at any point during the season is affected very predictably by how warm or cool the season has been to that point. This knowledge, combined with projections about the remainder of the growing season, can sometimes be used to make mid-season adjustments in management and to predict harvest schedules.

The demonstration and research plot results discussed in this publication are a cooperative effort by seven Virginia Cooperative Extension agents, several extension specialists from Virginia Tech, area
producers, and agribusinesses. We are proud to present this year’s on-farm wheat plot work to you. The 2008-09 wheat season was a tough one for producers. Below normal temperatures in the fall and winter
reduced tillering, and wet conditions in the spring delayed harvest and resulted in low quality and yields in many areas. With wheat prices down considerably and input costs relatively high, wheat producers
will need to really focus on maximum economic yields during 2009-10 to produce profitable wheat.