Willow Creek Winter Wheat

Willow Creek Winter Wheat (Triticum aestivum) is an improved hard red forage variety with many desirable forage features. It grows tall, matures later than other winter wheats, and expresses a fine stemmed morphology. Willow Creek produces abundant forage under dryland and irrigated conditions. It has good winter hardiness, is beardless, and is highly palatable to cattle. Willow Creek is frequently fall planted to provide a nutritious pasture source the following spring. This also allows for delayed turnout onto native or slower growing perennial pastures.

Willow Creek Winter Wheat is extremely winter hardy. If planted early in the fall it can provide fall grazing, early spring grazing, and one or more high-tonnage summer cuttings. Under irrigation, regrowth can provide multiple cuttings or additional pasture. Compared to haybet barley, Willow Creek produces higher tonnage and a wider flag leaf. Forage quality is somewhat lower than for forage barleys but beneficially, nitrates are also significantly lower.

Ray Hard Red Winter Wheat is a new improved variety developed by crossing Yellowstone and Willow Creek Wheat. Ray is far superior in seed and grain production and is equal in forage production to Willow Creek.

Released by the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station in 2005.

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