Agricultural News
Oklahoma Wheat Commission CEO Mike Schulte says rain put wheat harvest at a stand still in Southwestern Oklahoma
Fri, 20 May 2011 18:23:14 CDT
Mike Schulte, CEO of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission, says harvest in Oklahoma in May is not the norm- but the stressed hard red winter wheat crop has been two weeks early for much of the spring. The rainfall of this week has halted the progress of where harvesting has already started for the year. Despite the early start to harvest this crop season, the test weights that have already come in, have been good at an average of 60 to 61 pounds. Also, the protein test results are holding strong- ranging from 11.8% to 12% in elevators that have been pulling new crop samples and running protein checks.
Schulte adfds that he hopes these cloudy days northern Oklahoma has been experiencing will be beneficial in helping the crop to continue to progress in these areas around Burlington and Cherokee, where the crop is not as far along as in other areas. It's too early to tell if this latest round of showers will really help wheat in the northern counties where it was received..
But these rainy days in southwestern Oklahoma have put harvest at a stand still currently. Over 5 inches in some areas around Frederick have caused farmers to take a break from harvest, probably until well into next week
Finally, there are areas of the HRW belt that desperately needed rain- and got none. Mark Hodges with Plains Grains indicated to us in an email that "Please note the Texas/Oklahoma Panhandle, eastern Colorado and western Kansas missed- again."
Click on the listen bar below to hear Ron Hays and Mike Schulte talk about the current situation for wheat harvest across Oklahoma. Also, be sure to tune in and watch Mike with even more on wheat harvest on News 9 with Ron Hays during his In the Field segment on Saturday morning, May 21, 2011- around 6:40 AM.
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