Triticale
×Triticosecale
Small-grain cereal created as a hybrid of wheat (Triticum) and rye (Secale), grown for both grain and — most commonly — high-quality forage. It combines the yield and grain quality potential of wheat with the hardiness, disease tolerance, and adaptation to marginal soils of rye, including better tolerance of drought and acidic soils than wheat. Both winter and spring types exist: winter triticale requires vernalization (a cold period) to flower and is typically fall-planted for early-spring forage or summer grain harvest, while spring types are sown in spring. Adapted across a wide range of temperate conditions (roughly USDA hardiness zones 4-9 for fall-sown winter types, with cold-hardiness depending heavily on cultivar parentage). Widely used as a cover crop and as a versatile feed grain and forage (greenchop, silage, hay, or grazing), it is valued in diversified and livestock systems for reliable biomass on ground where wheat is less dependable.
Crop Snowflake Score
/acre
/acre
/acre
years
Overview
Plant into moderately to well-drained soils; performs across pH but generally prefers pH above ~5.8 and tolerates more acidic ground than wheat. Drill seed 1-2 inches deep. Typical seeding rates run about 80-100 lb/acre for early-spring forage (lower, ~40-60 lb/acre, when used purely as a cover crop or in mixes). Nitrogen is the nutrient most often limiting yield: roughly 40-60 lb N/acre for forage growth, with grain N applied on a per-bushel basis. Grain yields commonly fall in the 30-80 bu/acre range depending on type and environment; as forage, triticale harvested at the boot to early-head stage yields on the order of 1.5-2.5 tons of dry matter per acre (and considerably more under high-input or irrigated conditions). Winterkill was a problem in early spring-parented varieties; modern winter-wheat-parented cultivars have markedly improved cold hardiness. Stem elongation will not occur without vernalization, so fall-planted winter types stay vegetative until spring. Terminate as a cover crop before excessive spring growth.
Growing Season
- Plant
- late summer – early fall
- Harvest
- late spring – midsummer
Yield
- Typical yield
- 50 bu/acre
- Productive lifespan
- 1 years
Market Fit
Active Regional Buyers
No buyer on record for this crop in the catalog's buyer network.
Price Trend Stable/Up
3-year price trend not recorded for this crop.
Supply Below Demand
No buyer network on record — cannot establish that regional demand absorbs additional supply.
Multiple Buyer Channels
0 recorded buyers and 6 documented market channels. Multiple routes to market.
Value-Added Potential
6 documented market channels, including value-added and direct-to-consumer routes.
Market Growth Projected
Mature grain market; growth over a 5-year horizon expected to track population rather than outpace it.
Market Channels
Climate Fit
Hardiness Zone Match
Crop tolerates zones 4-9; region spans 5-6. Overlaps.
GDD Sufficient
Crop GDD minimum not recorded. Region accumulates 2500+ GDD (base 50F), sufficient for most temperate crops.
Precipitation Compatible
Crop water requirement not recorded. Region is humid continental with reliable growing-season rainfall; irrigation available as supplement.
Frost-Free Season OK
Crop frost-free requirement not recorded. Region provides ~180 days.
Chill Hours Met
Not applicable — annual crop has no winter chill requirement.
Climate Trend Favorable
Crop spans 6 hardiness zones (4-9). Wide adaptive range buffers against warming trend.
Soil Compatibility
Soil Texture
Drainage
Infrastructure Fit
Equipment Compatible
8 documented equipment requirements. Within range adaptable from general row-crop or orchard equipment.
Storage Available
3 documented storage/handling requirements, all achievable with conventional on-farm or third-party facilities.
Irrigation Compatible
Water requirement not recorded; standard drip or overhead irrigation assumed adequate.
Field Layout Suitable
grain crops need large contiguous acreage to be economic; the region's parcels are typically small and fragmented by topography.
Labor Availability
Labor requirement not recorded. Catalog 75th percentile is 250 hr/ac.
Processing Proximity
No processing or cooperative buyer on record for this crop; product would need to travel or be sold fresh.
Equipment Requirements
planting
Seeds triticale at 2-3 bu/acre to a depth of 1-2 in. A standard cereal drill or air seeder with accurate shallow placement into moist soil improves emergence.
General-purpose power for seeding, tillage and spraying across cereal acreage. Fixed cost shared across the operation.
cultivation
Field cultivator or tandem disc for seedbed prep and for burying ergot bodies and cereal residue after harvest to reduce disease carryover.
spraying
Boom sprayer for herbicide application; limited registered herbicide options make timely, accurate application important.
harvesting
Straight-combined like wheat with similar settings. Reduce cylinder speed to limit cracked kernels; straight cutting also minimizes sprouting versus swathing.
Optional, only if swathing is chosen. Swath at 35% kernel moisture or less. Straight combining is generally preferred for triticale.
post_harvest
Store below 13% moisture to keep moulds and mites inactive; aeration and cooling maintain grain condition.
Grain at up to 20% moisture can be combined and dried without quality loss; needed when harvesting tough grain.
Storage Requirements
Grain bin (on-farm), long-term
Temperature
25–40°F
Max Storage
365 days
Short-term dry storage (under 6 months)
Temperature
30–60°F
Max Storage
180 days
Ensiled forage (bunker, bag or bale silage)
Max Storage
365 days
Finance Fit
Revenue Above Average
Gross revenue not recorded for this crop in lake_erie. Cannot establish it exceeds the catalog median of $5,500.
Input Costs Acceptable
Input cost not recorded; not penalising. Catalog 75th percentile is $5,387/ac.
Payback Period OK
Reaches full production in 0 years. Acceptable payback.
Insurance Available
Federal crop insurance or an equivalent risk product is available.
Revenue Per Labor Hour
Cannot compute — net return not recorded. Catalog median is $13.16/hr.
Grants/Subsidies
No specialty-crop or cover-crop incentive program identified for this grain crop.
Economics Breakdown
| Avg Price/Unit | $4/per bushel (50 lb; crop-insurance established price) |
| Gross Revenue/Acre | — |
| Annual Operating Cost | —/acre |
| Establishment Cost | —/acre |
| Total Input Cost | —/acre |
| Net Return/Acre | — |
| Revenue/Labor Hour | — |
| Crop Insurance | Available |
Source: USDA RMA Actuarial Data Master 2026, A00810 Price file (June 2025 filing, corrected 2026-08-03) (2026)
Risk Fit
Manageable Pest/Disease
10 documented risk factors. Within the range manageable by conventional IPM.
Market Diversified
0 buyers, 6 channels. Not dependent on a single outlet.
Low Establishment Risk
0 years to full production. Low establishment exposure.
Climate Resilient
Tolerates zones 4-9 (6 zones). Broad tolerance indicates resilience to seasonal variability.
Regulatory Burden Low
No crop-specific licensing or reporting regime beyond standard food-safety and pesticide rules.
Diversifies Portfolio
Adds a grain revenue stream distinct from the region's grape-dominated base.
Known Risks
disease
Triticale is more susceptible to ergot than wheat, producing far more sclerotia. Ergot bodies replace kernels in the head; levels above 0.1% in harvested grain may be toxic in livestock feed.
Fungal leaf and stem rusts are among the main foliar diseases that limit triticale yield, though many varieties carry good rust resistance.
Triticale is similar to wheat in susceptibility to fusarium head blight, which lowers grain quality and can produce mycotoxins.
Seedling damping-off can thin stands, and no fungicide seed treatments are registered for triticale.
pest
Wheat midge larvae feed on developing kernels, reducing yield and grade in cereal crops including triticale.
Aphids feed on triticale foliage and heads and can vector cereal viruses.
Grasshoppers can defoliate triticale and clip heads, especially in hot, dry seasons and along field margins.
Armyworm and cutworm larvae chew foliage and can cut seedlings, causing localized stand loss.
weather
Triticale is more prone than hard red wheat to sprouting in the swath, which degrades grain quality.
market
A limited number of herbicides are registered and no seed treatments are available for triticale, constraining pest and weed management.
Nutritional Yield
Nutrition data pending.
Research agents will profile Triticale against USDA FoodData Central on the next maintenance pass. Per-acre nutritional yield will appear here once the per-100g panel is recorded.
Ecosystem Services
Ecosystem service data pending.
The next research-agent rotation will document this crop's contributions to pollinator support, soil health, water quality, biodiversity, and carbon sequestration.
Nearby Buyers
Data Sources
Every data point on this page is traceable to its source. Below you'll find the complete provenance trail — which sources were used, when data was last verified, and a full change history.
Primary sources: Region-neutral agronomy — seeding rate, seeding depth, nitrogen needs, vernalization/cover-crop behavior — from University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, 'Triticale' (Crops and Soils) — https://cropsandsoils.extension.wisc.edu/articles/triticale/. Forage/grain yield ranges, winter-hardiness history, and wheat×rye background from K-State Research and Extension, MF2227 'Triticale in Kansas' — https://bookstore.ksre.ksu.edu/pubs/triticale-in-kansas_MF2227.pdf.
Economics data year: 2026 · Region: lake_erie View economics source →
48 tracked changes across 8 data categories