Washington, DC – Spring wheat growers still have an opportunity to enter the spring wheat sector of the National Wheat Foundation’s (NWF) National Wheat Yield Contest (NWYC), as the final date to register an entry is August 1. Registration for the Fall Wheat sector of the contest ended May 1. National winners will be announced in Fall 2016, and will attend the 2017 Commodity Classic in San Antonio, Texas, as guests of NWF.

NWF has partnered with industry leaders such as BASF, Monsanto, John Deere, and WinField, to provide our nation’s wheat growers the opportunity to utilize new and expanding technology to achieve higher yields and better quality crops, while highlighting sustainable practices that are in line with conservation efforts to preserve the environment and maintain farm productivity.

“WinField is committed to its member owners’ success and we believe the NWYC will spur innovation and a new way of thinking about wheat,” says Mark Torno, Diverse Field Crops Marketing Manager for WinField. “This contest is a friendly competition with the goal of sharing knowledge and insights to improve the whole wheat industry.”

The NWYC will also drive innovation among growers and encourage further wheat-focused research. The sharing of grower knowledge and expertise is also one of the main objectives of the contest.

“NWF believes that with the impetus of the NWYC, wheat growers will be encouraged to openly communicate with their competitors and colleagues and facilitate the knowledge transfer that will make all of us more successful,” says NWF Chairman Phil McLain, a wheat grower from North Carolina. “The wheat industry is at a point where innovative farmers are having a huge impact on the development of best practices and techniques. The NWYC will enable the sharing of those techniques to bring more wheat growers to the cutting-edge of innovation.”

Torno also stated the participation of industry leaders like WinField provides growers with the tools, products, and management techniques to produce exemplary crops and encourage the transfer of knowledge from experts to growers. The technologies developed by these industry leaders will help farmers optimize their fields’ potential, and provide a new standard of excellence for wheat varieties.