INTERNAL PATTERNS IN LODGED WHEAT
Beaumont, Alberta, Canada
August 2000

Report by Judy Arndt, posted April, 2001

Lodged (randomly downed) grain in the Edmonton area has a few similarities with the downed grain in crop circle formations. Although not organized in circles, there are repeating internal patterns. Stem node damage is similar to that found in some crop circle formations.

The photos in this report were taken in a wheat field south of Beaumont. This instance of lodging occurred during the period of rapid growth when the seed heads were filling out. The farmer, Andre Goudreau, says the crop goes down every year in this field in the same place. With his permission my husband, Mike Arndt, and I took photos and collected some plant and soil samples.

We also took a look at lodged grain in numerous other fields in areas around of Edmonton--Devon, Leduc, Wetaskawin, Morinville. We found two kinds of lodging:

1. By far the most common in 2000 was flattening that apparently results from excessive growth. Every one of these lodged areas had the internal lay patterns.

2. Weather damage, found in only two fields north of Edmonton. These areas were messy, not flattened and only partially downed. We did not find internal patterns in these fields.

Central Alberta had a late, cool, wet spring which delayed planting. July was wetter than normal with frequent thunderstorms, windstorms and hail. All of these factors can contribute to lodging. However, in the fields we looked at we saw no bruising, breakage or other evidence of hail damage.

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