Shawn Conley, State Soybean and Small Grains Specialist
Understanding the growth stages of cereals crops and how to identify them is key to successful cropping and pest management decisions. Although there are several growth staging methods, this guide is based on the Feekes scale, which is a popular tool used in the eld. It has eleven development stages with some stages having more detailed subdivisions.The Zadoks scale is the standard scale used in research and has ten development stages, each stage having ten subdivisions. Both scales are useful to know, so this guide cross-references the Zadoks equivalents to the Feekes.
This guide uses winter wheat as an example. However, the methods generally apply to other cereals as well and at the back of the guide are sections that showcase barley, oats, rye and triticale.