Agricultural News
2012 Oklahoma Winter Wheat Crop Enters Winter in Surprisingly Good Shape
Fri, 09 Dec 2011 12:31:30 CST
Back during the dog days of summer 2011- prospects looked bleak for the fall growing season potential of either the winter canola or winter wheat crop. Exceptional Drought stretched across the great majority of the wheat and canola belt within the state.
Mark Hodges, Executive Director of Plains Grains, Inc, says it is nothing short of amazing the turnaround in growing conditions we have seen since mid August up to this weekend, with only a portion of the Oklahoma Panhandle now being rated in exceptional drought. The 2012 wheat crop is still not as well established as you would like in the northwestern countries of the state, but northcentral, central, south central and southwestern Oklahoma all has had enough rain to establish the crop as it enters the winter dormancy season.
We talk about the conditions of the fall with Hodges, as well as what kind of shape we are with the crop as we hit the winter season- and the need for timely rains to continue in order for the potential of this crop to be realized.
Mark also gave us an update of the quality of the 2011 hard red winter wheat crop- which he described with a single word- "WOW." While the southern plains were short on bushels, test weights across the entire HRW region were great, protein levels trended above 12% and perhaps the only shortcoming of the crop from a quality viewpoint was that some millers would have preferred bigger berries. He adds that this exceptional quality crop comes after two straight years of somewhat below normal proteins- so in many cases, merchandisers have been able to blend wheat from previous seasons with this year's crop to the specs of many buyers.
You can hear our full conversation with Mark Hodges of Plains Grains (And Oklahoma Genetics) by clicking on the LISTEN BAR below.
And- Mark will be our guest on Saturday morning during our In the Field segment as seen on KWTV News9 at approximately 6:40 AM during their morning news block.
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