Agricultural News
Several Farmers Report Surprising Fields of Wheat in the Midst of Drought in 2011
Thu, 02 Jun 2011 23:18:58 CDT
Wheat harvest continues to roll- and we have several reports in this late Thursday/early Friday wheat harvest update. First- we have pictures from the Altus area of a field of Duster wheat- the pictures submitted by Fred Schmedt. Both the picture above is of this field of Duster wheat, as is the picture with the combine in the photo that is right below. Fred writes in an email about this field (and one other that he has harvested this week) "wheat harvest remarkable given moisture after sowing. Mesonet at Altus (augmented by our own in field gages when Mesonet was down) reported: Oct. 1.98, Nov. 0.73, Dec. 0.17, Jan. 0.02, Feb. 0.56, March 0.04, April 0.14, May 0.69. In my opinion, we made a phenomenal wheat crop given lack of rain because the Mesonet reported for July 6.38, Aug. 1.50, Sept. 1.87- we had very good soil moisture in no-till fields at sowing time. Pictures of Duster in a field 2.25 miles as the crow flies from the Altus Mesonet station. Lots of heads but, as evidenced by to many standing straight up, not grain fill all the way to top of heads. Field averaged 23 bu. Another field 1.5 miles from the Mesonet Station averaged 27 bu. It was Jackpot. Very common yields but we feel very fortunate to have anything. I have always felt we make wheat with late Feb., March, and early April rain and the total for those months was 0.74."
The numbers that Fred shares with us are rainfall amounts expressed as fractions of an inch of rainfall for every month except last October when the total was just shy of two inches of rainfall. As Fred notes- the wheat plant with today's genetics can produce at least some wheat with a bare minimum of water- if given any chance at all.
Other reports that we have received from individual farmers include a quick note from Keith Kisling from Burlington, Oklahoma- not far from the state line with Kansas. Based on that note- it looks like harvest was going to have to wait until later in the day on Thursday or perhaps into Friday because of the moisture levels. Keith said simply they were trying to harvest a field of Duster wheat with a load at 60.2 pounds of test weight and 15.5% moisture.
We also got a report of harvest being complete from Rebecca Powell- Snow in Bessie, Oklahoma. Rebecca writes us "Dick and Powell Farm completed 2011 wheat harvest on May 31st- a Historical record! To our surprise, we had one 17 acre field yield 40.53 bu./ac. and a 26 acre field yield 30.57 bu./ac. These fields are about a mile west of Bessie, OK. Of course other yields were from 9.6 to 19.07-- grazed out the majority of wheat acres because of EXTREME drought. All dry land farming." She expressed their amazement at those two fields that grew wheat when the majority of their some 800 acres had very few bushels to harvest.
Our thanks to these folks that have submitted harvest information to us- send us your reports to ron@oklahomafarmreport.com.
Pictures here are courtesy of Fred Schmedt from the Altus, Oklahoma area.
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