Production Resources

The key to winter wheat production is planning ahead. Special considerations are required when selecting seeding date, field, stubble type, seeding depth, variety, and fertility rates. The following factors contribute significantly to the success of a winter wheat crop.

Why Winter Wheat

Winter wheat provides many benefits to a cropping system, including spreading out workloads, utilization of early season moisture, improved weed competition, and a potential yield increase compared to spring wheat.

Variety Selection

• Over the last decade, several new winter wheat varieties have been released. These varieties have improved winter hardiness, standability, disease resistance, and yield potential compared to older varieties.
• It’s important to evaluate all varietal characteristics, not just yield, when selecting a variety. Here are a few tips.
  • Due to Manitoba’s harsh winters, it’s important to select a variety with an elevated relative winter hardiness (G or VG). This becomes especially important in low snow fall years.
  • Relative maturity is important to watch depending on harvest plans. Overdrive is early maturing and often harvested in July, whereas Wildfire is late maturing and can be harvested later than spring wheat.
  • There are many notable diseases, and different varieties have varying resistance levels. In general, the more R’s and MR’s the better.

Figure 1. Winter Wheat Varietal Descriptions from Seed Manitoba.

Table 1. Top Five Canada Western Red Winter varieties from MASC’s 2025 Variety Market Share Report.

Seeding Date

• Seeding timing is essential for a successful winter wheat crop, as the crop requires adequate growth for successful overwintering. For the best chance of winter survival, winter wheat should be at the 3-leaf/1-tiller stage going into winter, with a well-developed crown.
• The ideal time to seed winter wheat in Manitoba is from the last week of August to mid September. In northern regions the crop should be seeded by September 15^th.
• Winter wheat insurance information can be found here. Contact a MASC service centre for more information.

Table 2. Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation (MASC) 2026 seeding date deadline for full and extended coverage for winter wheat.

Seeding Rate

• The recommended target final plant population for winter wheat is between 20-30 plant/ft², but it is recommended to target the upper range of this recommendation.
• Use the seed by plant population method to calculate seeding rate in lbs/ac to best achieve target plant population. This method accounts for differences in seed size (thousand kernel weight) and differing environmental conditions (expected mortality) and germination percentage.
• When calculating seeding rate, a seedling survival rate of 0.70 is used to account for germination and emergence, as well as the impact of winter survival. The formula can be found below.

Seeding Depth

• Winter wheat should be planted between 0.5 – 1 inch deep. Seeds required less than 0.5 inches of moisture to germinate, which is routinely provided by fall rains. Deep seeding is not recommended and has resulted in delayed and spindly plants.

Stubble Selection

• It’s important to seed your winter wheat crop into standing stubble, as it will help trap snow to insulate the crown from harsh winter temperatures.
• Stubble should hold at least 4 inches of snow, to ensure adequate insulation of the plant’s crown and reduce winter kill risk.
• Canola is the most common and recommended stubble type to seed winter wheat into.
• However, canola stubble is not always available, as more canola is being harvested later in the fall, due to longer season and straight-cut varieties. Alternative stubble options include:

Barley (2-row):

• Good stubble height for adequate snow catching. Barley is harvested early, allowing for timely winter wheat seeding.
• Use two-row varieties as they lose germination quickly over winter, compared to six-row varieties. This reduces the number of volunteer weeds in the spring.

Oat:

• Provides good stubble height for snow capture. It is harvested slightly later than barley but is a good option when harvest timing allows.

Pea:

• Peas are harvested early, allowing for timely winter wheat seeding.
• Caution should be taken, as pea stubble provides little snow trapping ability. If using pea stubble, it should be used in high snow fall areas.

Flax:

• Flax has good snow trapping ability but is not used routinely due to its later harvest.

Figure 2. Manitoba Agricultural Service Corporation (MASC) Relative Stubble Yield Response (2011-2020).

• It should be noted that spring wheat is not a recommended stubble type due to the risk of Wheat Streak Mosaic Virus (WSMV) and fungal diseases, such as fusarium head blight. More information on WSMV can be found here.

Seed Treatment

• Seed treatments, both fungicide and dual insecticide/fungicide treatments, have been shown to increase plant density, and may also increase yield under western Canadian growing conditions. For example, Beres et al. (2016) also observed increases in yield and economic return when a dual seed treatment was used when winter wheat stands were thin.

Fertility

When growing winter wheat, it's good practice to match your fertility rates with your yield goals to ensure appropriate rates of fertilizer are applied. As well, using a soil test is recommended to determine residual soil nutrients, and guide fertilizer application rates.

Nitrogen (N):

• A recent study at the MB Diversification Centres found that winter wheat yield and protein were optimized when fertilized with approximately 107 lb N/ac, plus 25-35 residual soil nitrogen. More information on this study can be found here. Additional information on winter wheat nitrogen management can be found in the Manitoba Soil Fertility Guide.
• Early crop N demand should be met; thus, early N application in the spring is essential for winter wheat. Early N application promotes tillering. As well, the winter wheat head is developed by the 5-6 leaf stage, and the plant uses roughly 30-40% of its nitrogen by stem elongation.
• Timing of nitrogen application is important. There are multiple strategies that can be employed.
• Split application:
  • Split applying N reduces risk of loss and the inability to apply nitrogen in the spring. Split N application lengthens the spring application window, which can be delayed if soils are too wet for April applications. Fall N also helps bridge the crop needs if early spring N is stranded on dry soils.
  • Split application ratios include 50:50 or 40:60, fall and spring applied respectively.
  • If applying in the spring, N in nitrate form is the most readily available N form, so dribble-banded UAN (28-0-0) is an appropriate product to use. Granular urea (46-0-0) is another commonly used product but requires a rain to become plant available.
  • Below are additional fall and spring N fertilizer considerations.
• Spring applied:
  • As mentioned above, if applying N in the spring, early application is key.
  • Risks associated with all spring applied N include not being able to enter fields due to field wetness.
  • N can be stranded on the soil surface if rain is not received after application. Thus, if rain is not expected within 2-3 days after application, a urease inhibitor should be used with urea or UAN to reduce volatilization loss.
• Fall applied:
  • Fall and overwinter N loss is a risk when applying large amounts of N in the fall.
  • An enhanced efficiency fertilizer (controlled release or nitrification inhibitor) can be effective in the fall to reduce fall and overwinter N loss.

Phosphorus (P):

• Adequate P in the fall is essential for successful winter wheat production. Soil tests should guide P application, which is typically around 30-40 lb P₂O₅/ac.
• P improves winter hardiness, promotes emergence, establishment, and plant recovery in the spring.
• P is immobile and thus is most effective when applied in or near the seed row, if safe seed placed limits are not exceeded. Manitoba Soil Fertility Guide recommends no more than 50lbs/ac of actual P2O5.

Figure 3. Maximum safe rate of actual seed place phosphate (P₂O₅) fertilizer as monoammonium phosphate. Source: Manitoba Agriculture.

Potassium (K) and Chloride (Cl):

• If K is needed, get it into the soil in the fall at seeding since K is immobile in the soil. If Cl from potash (KCl) is what you are looking for, that is soluble and can be applied anytime. Guide K application rates based on soil tests. Apply 15-30 lb/ac K₂0 on sandy or organic soils.

Sulphur (S):

• 15 lb/ac of sulphate sulphur, only when sulphur levels are low.

Copper (Cu):

• Soils with high sand content, low organic matter and high pH naturally tend to be Cu deficient. Confirm with soil testing. In-season foliar applications can be effective at the stem-elongation to flag-leaf-emergence stages.

Additional Resources

Manitoba Agriculture

• Winter Wheat- Production and Management

Manitoba Crop Alliance

• Winter Wheat Fertility Checklist
• Winter Wheat: Fertility Requirements and Assessing Survival

Common Questions

Q: I’d like to seed my winter wheat into barley stubble as my canola is late this year, what should I be taking into consideration?

A: There are a couple things to keep in mind when planning to seed your winter wheat into cereal stubble:

1. Seeding issues: This used to be more of a concern due to the amount of straw and chaff cereals produce. However, newer combines do a better job of chopping and spreading residue and many farmers have had good results seeding their winter wheat into barley stubble.
2. Diseases: Of course, seeding a cereal into cereal residue can cause disease issues. Many of these concerns can be mitigated with use of seed treatments and fungicides. However, wheat streak mosaic is a viral disease transmitted by leaf curl mite, which requires a green (living) host to survive. If winter wheat establishes where the previous cereal crop was infected and the previous crop still has green tissue, a “green bridge” is created that allows the mite to move from the previous crop to the winter wheat. Since there is no chemical control, it is best to allow seven to 10 days between the dry down of the previous cereal crop and emergence of the winter wheat crop. There are also winter wheat varieties such as Elevate that have good resistance to wheat curl mite.

Q: Last year, I side banded ESN in the fall and put additional UAN on as soon as I could in the spring. What are your thoughts on putting ESN with the seed?

A: There is a risk of injury when you place any fertilizer with the seed. This year, some unexpected injury was observed with ESN, even though research out of Alberta has shown ESN to be up to three times safer than urea. See the chart below to come up with a “safe rate.” Keep in mind that under dry conditions and narrow row openers, risk of injury may still be high. In general, if you have the equipment, it is likely best to stick with the safe, side-banded option.

Table 4. Rates of urea nitrogen (lb N/ac) safely applied with cereal and canola seed if seedbed soil moisture is good to excellent. Where seedbed moisture is low or when weather is hot and windy, reduce these rates by approximately 50 per cent.

¹ Width of spread varies with air flow, soil type, moisture level, amount of surface crop residue and other soil conditions, so it must be checked under field conditions.
² Some openers give less than 1” spread. Urea should not be applied with the seed on light soils when a double disc opener is being used.
^* SBU, seedbed utilization, is the amount of the seedbed over which the fertilizer has been spread. Thus, it is a reflection of the relative concentration of fertilizer. SBU (%) is the width of spread, divided by the row spacing, multiplied by 100. For example, if the seeding implement has a 6” spacing and spreads the seed and fertilizer over 2”, the SBU would be 33 per cent (2/6 X 100 = 33). The higher the SBU, the more fertilizer that can be safely spread with the seed. Although some openers spread the seed and fertilizer vertically, SBU does not take this into account since it is generally recognized that all seed should be placed at an even depth for even germination and emergence.

Q: After the wet spring I have some unseeded acres that I’d like to get something growing on. Knowing there is no stubble for snow catch, how can I maximize the chance of successful overwintering?

A: Seeding into fallow ground is risky, but can to help dry out the soil. Here are some things that you can do to help the field overwinter successfully:

1. Variety Selection: Choose a variety with very good winter hardiness. Previously good winter hardiness was a concern for winter wheat, but since 2015 five newer varieties are rated ‘Very Good” for winter hardiness. Any of Wildfire, Goldrush, Vortex, Coldfront or Overdrive are the best options.
2. Seed Early: Since you don’t have to wait for harvest before seeding, getting onto the field early helps make a big healthy crown with more reserves to survive the winter. Seeding too early coupled with a longer warm fall can make the crown too large and more susceptible to freezing injury or snow mould. Ideally, seeding between Aug. 25-Sept. 5 is a good happy medium.
3. Fertility: Unseeded acres will have undergone a lot of mineralization over the growing season, and as a result will have higher levels of available nitrogen. Soil test to know what application rates are recommended. Fall nitrogen application usually not needed but spring top up is still required. Still apply phosphorus close to the seed at seeding, as this will help improve winter survival.

Acknowledgements

This article was written in collaboration with Alex Griffiths, agrologist at Ducks Unlimited Canada.

References

Beres at al. 2016. Winter Wheat Cropping System Response to Seed Treatments, Seed Size, and Sowing Density. Agronomy Journal.