Early history of winter wheat in the Central Plains

Extension Corner
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    When the first settlers came to the Central Plains in what would become Kansas, Colorado and Nebraska, wheat was one of the first crops they planted. The first recorded wheat harvest was 1839 in Kansas and around 1870 in Nebraska. However, these crops were far less successful than those we grow today.
    The early setters came mostly from western Europe and the eastern U.S. and brought the wheat varieties that had done well for them at home. Their winter wheat varieties did not cope well with the move. What didn’t winterkill usually succumbed to drought stress, and attempts to grow winter wheat were quickly abandoned.
    The soft red spring wheat varieties they brought fared better, and the vast majority of acres were planted to spring wheat until the 1870s in Kansas and until 1900 in Nebraska and Colorado. Yields were low. A 20-bushel crop was good, and complete crop failures were common.
    It wasn’t until 1873 that a reliable winter wheat variety came to the area. The famous Turkey hard red winter wheat was brought by Mennonite settlers from Ukraine and Crimea. The landscapes and climate of the Central Plains were similar to their homeland and likely the reason they chose to settle here. As such, they brought not only their wheat varieties, but a knowledge of how to successfully grow them in dryland environments. Their system of deep spring plowing, several lighter cultivations and early fall planting became the dominant dryland farming system in the Plains for most of a century after their arrival.
    By most accounts, the Mennonite settlers didn’t realize the unique importance of their wheat or farming methods until long after their arrival. They simply farmed the way they knew and built tight-knit and relatively isolated communities. Change was slow to spread outside. While their near neighbors must surely have taken notice, the region at large didn’t benefit from their knowledge for some time.
    A Mennonite immigrant to Kansas in 1871, Bernhard Warkentin was the first to really promote Turkey wheat as the major advance that it was. He coordinated the first imports of Turkey seed wheat for sale to the general public in 1885. Charles Georgeson, superintendent of the Kansas State Agricultural College at the time, received some of this seed in 1890. Variety trials clearly showed its superior performance, to the extent that the new college soon declared it a “heavy yielder,” “perhaps the hardiest wheat of any we have tested” and the “standard wheat” for the state. Another large seed import in 1900 cemented the success of Turkey wheat in Kansas and adjacent areas.

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