Weather
Wind lodging in wheat, barley, rice and maize
Strong wind, especially with rain, pushes stems to the ground, and they cannot stand back up. Grain filling suffers, disease risk rises, and harvesting becomes costlier and loses more grain. Yield losses range from zero to 80% depending on the growth stage and the angle of lean.
Crops: Wheat, Barley, Rice, Maize
When it is dangerous
Heading and grain fill are the most dangerous stages, when plants are tall and heavy. Lodging in the first 10 days after heading can cost up to 40% of the yield, and the damage declines after that. In classic trials losses were 31% at heading, 25% at milk ripeness, 20% at soft dough and 12% at hard dough.
Causes
- Squally wind
- Wind together with heavy rain
- Excess nitrogen and too high a seeding rate
- Wet soil after irrigation that anchors roots poorly
- A tall variety with weak stems
Signs on the field
- Flattened patches pressed down in the wind direction
- Broken stems, or whole plants tilted together with their roots
- Later, partly lodged stems bend upward at a knee
- Lodged patches turn yellow earlier than the rest of the field
How ClusterOS notices it
The main tool is Sentinel-1 radar: lodging changes the structure of the crop, and radar sees it right away and through clouds. An image from before the storm is needed for comparison, and weather data shows whether strong wind and rain hit the field. In optical imagery a lodged crop does not dim as after hail or drought but gets brighter, so the usual greenness index NDVI does not help here. Satellites show that lodging happened but not how severe it is – an agronomist assesses the angle of lean and the share of the area.
What to do
- Inspect the field and estimate the lodged area and the angle of lean
- Plan to harvest lodged patches first
- Log harvest dates and nitrogen rates – dense, overfed crops lodge more often
- Avoid irrigating before a forecast of strong wind: wet soil holds roots poorly
Questions
Why does wheat lodge?
Wind with rain creates a load that the stem or the root cannot hold. The risk is higher with excess nitrogen, dense sowing, tall varieties and wet soil after irrigation. Irrigated fields lodge more often than rainfed ones.
How much yield is lost to lodging?
Anywhere from zero to 80%, depending on the growth stage and the angle of lean. Lodging in the first 10 days after heading costs up to 40%, and less after that. Harvest losses and extra harvesting costs come on top.
Learn about this risk on your fields before it becomes a loss
We will show ClusterOS on your own fields: history since 2019, crop stage and all 24 risks.
Other risks in «Weather»
Scientific basis
- Chauhan S. et al. 2020, Remote Sensing of Environment 243:111804, DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2020.111804
- Predicting yield losses caused by lodging in wheat, Field Crops Research, DOI: 10.1016/j.fcr.2012.07.015
- Weibel R.O., Pendleton J.W. 1964