In Illinois, wheat occupies 780,000 acres (USDA-NASS, 2024), 80% of which are in Southern Illinois where they will be followed by double crop (dc) soybeans (Illinois Farm Service, 2023). High-yielding wheat varieties that can be harvested earlier could boost the profitability of wheat/dc soybean in Illinois. During the dc soybean planting timeframe, each day that planting is delayed, the yield of dc soybean is reduced by 0.3 to 1 bushel per acre (personal communication, Emerson Nafziger, 2019). Due to this effect and commodity prices, one day earlier wheat harvest is at least as valuable as one bushel/acre of wheat yield.
Freeze damage in wheat becomes a risk once reproductive growth begins. Some growers select later maturing wheat varieties to avoid freeze, however this need not be the case. Variation in freeze damage risk exists among early maturing varieties. More comprehensive data on wheat varieties and more early maturing varieties available would allow wheat growers to select varieties that can be harvested earlier without increasing freeze damage risk.
The goal of this project is to disseminate data and new varieties that will allow growers to maximize wheat/dc soybean profitability.

Provide stakeholders with precise and standardized data on days to 14% moisture, and spring freeze risk in addition to yield, on commercial and experimental wheat varieties. This data currently does not exist, and it would help growers and seedsmen select varieties especially suited for the dc system.

Improve phenotyping methods for spring freeze tolerance. This will provide better data to stakeholders and enable larger scale phenotyping.

Increase the number of elite early wheat varieties available to growers.

This project will improve the profitability of wheat/dc soybean by increasing knowledge and availability of wheat varieties that are higher yielding, ready to harvest earlier, and less prone to spring freeze damage.

We expect this will help make soybean double-cropping economically viable for more farmers in in Illinois, including in more northern latitudes of the state. This will in-turn enhance the sustainability of Illinois soybean production while maintaining productivity.