GREENVILLE, Ohio – The U.S. government has asked farmers to increase crop production because of the war in Ukraine. Ukraine is the fifth-largest wheat producer in the world, and with the war continuing, experts are trying to prevent food shortages.

Earlier this summer, the USDA instituted new policies to encourage American farmers to begin growing two crops on one piece of land, one after another. In other words, double-cropping.

This year, the USDA encouraged double-cropping by streamlining crop insurance approvals in more than 1,500 counties nationwide where the practice seems viable. Double-cropping often results in smaller individual yields, but the two crops combined would still be larger than a single crop, officials say.

The practice of double-cropping is already in place in Ohio.

“Farmers in southwest Ohio have been doing just that for years,” said Matt Aultman, a farmer and state trustee for the Ohio Farm Bureau, as well as a Darke County commissioner. “I’ve got a double-crop field out currently. Some years, when there’s early frost or not much rain, a second crop of soybeans may not be worth harvesting and selling. It’s a roll of the dice when you put it out.”

Ohio State University and the University of Illinois jointly published a study in August that found double-cropping wheat and soybeans in southern Illinois produced roughly a third more value per acre than a single soybean crop. The authors acknowledged that results could be lower elsewhere or bring in less if wheat prices drop.

Writing for the OSU extension service on the matter, Laura Lindsey noted that double-cropping soybeans with wheat differs from growing soybeans alone. Lindsey, an associate professor in OSU’s Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, wrote that a key factor is planting soybeans as early as possible, so farmers might consider pairing them with winter barley, which is harvested two weeks earlier than winter wheat.

“Given Ohio’s major existing crops, planting soybeans after wheat makes a lot of sense,” Lindsey said. “The state’s wheat harvest is too late to successfully double-crop wheat and corn, but there may be interest in pairing wheat with sunflowers or forage for livestock.

“Probably the biggest challenge to successfully double-cropping with soybeans is whether there is enough rain. But too much rain on the wheat crop would delay harvesting, and that can substantially decrease soybean yields for each day planting is delayed after late April or early May.”

It remains unclear how many farmers will actually try the double-crop system, but some who already grow two crops say it’s something farmers should consider.

“I think it’s a great idea,” said Illinois farmer Jeff O’Conner, who has double-cropped for years and hosted President Joe Biden at an event in May to promote efforts to increase food production. “How successful it will be, I don’t know.”

Southern farmers more commonly double-crop, as well as those in southern Indiana and Illinois, Kentucky and parts of the eastern Corn Belt. In those regions, there may be an uptick in winter wheat plantings, thanks to attractive prices.

“The opportunities for revenue in double crop are incredible,” said Purdue University agricultural economist Michael Langemeier. “If your wheat stand is anything at all, there’s no doubt you’re looking at a home run.”

Double-cropping is performed by E & M Farms in Clifton, Iowa. Ed Shew, co-owner of that farm, says he experimented with double-cropping in years past.

“We’ve done a little bit of double crop, and a couple times we did okay and another time we got caught by the frost and it ruined the crop,” Shew said.

Clifton is located in the northeast portion of Iowa. “The climate the further north you go isn’t always friendly to double-cropping,” he said.

According to Shew, a late frost ahead of the spring planting season can harm wheat or grain sorghum, which are often what’s planted before soybeans in a double-crop. And that’s exactly what happened to him this past spring.

“We had a beautiful stand of grain sorghum but the frost got it and we couldn’t sell it because the test weight was not good. It just wasn’t sellable,” he said.

Shew said the tight window for double-cropping is something not a lot of farmers are willing to risk.

“We need to have that wheat harvested by the end of June and sometimes getting that maturity is problematic with the weather conditions we have here,” he said.

Another reason farmers may be hesitant to double-crop, he said, is record-high input costs for a crop that may not turn out right.

“Double-cropping has become less popular but may make a comeback further south where the weather is better for it,” he said. “At one point in this area it was a little more prevalent. But right now, we don’t see that much of it. Wheat has not been a very good money-making crop recently. Double-cropping can be risky, and I’m hoping farmers can do it successfully.”

Double-cropping wheat and soybeans may lead to eye-popping revenue opportunities for some, though, but Iowa State University agronomist Mark Licht said he didn’t expect Corn Belt farmers to start planting thousands of more acres of wheat this fall. 

“We can do it, but it’s really quite risky, even in southern Iowa,” Licht said. “Iowa farmers prefer planting full-season soybeans, which aren’t harvested until at least October. And the earliest wheat can be harvested is late June or early July, which leaves little time for even a short-season soybean crop to mature. We could follow winter wheat with crimson clover, Sudan sorghum or millet, for forage, but we can’t support a large number of acres like that.”

In 2020, the U.S. exported wheat values at $6.3 billion. The United States, Russia, Australia and Canada usually lead the world in wheat exports, with Ukraine typically ranked fifth, though its shipments will drop this year due to the war.