Agricultural News
Wheat Watch 2012- A Wheat Crop Update with State Wheat Specialist Dr. Jeff Edwards
Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:23:59 CDT
The 2012 Oklahoma Wheat Crop is looking in good to excellent shape across many of the wheat fields of the state as we wind down the month of March. On Wednesday, Farm Director Ron Hays caught up with Dr. Jeff Edwards, Oklahoma's state wheat specialist, and talked about the crop as it now stands. Edwards tells Hays that the north central part of the state is where you find the crop well ahead of normal development and in lush condition. Central Oklahoma also looks very good. The southwestern counties were able to get significant rainfall over the last couple of weeks that was extremely timely and allows the crop in that part of the state to continue to develop in generally good shape. The concern in southwest Oklahoma is the limited amount of moisture in the soil profile- decent amounts in the topsoil and limited moisture when you get down to the subsoil layers.
Edwards says things are more problematic in west central and northwest Oklahoma- the rains of last week helping the wheat for the time being while the Panhandle has the roughest looking wheat, even with some rainfall this past weekend.
Edwards also talked about some of the weed problems that have been seen in especially southwestern Oklahoma- he says most of the yield damage has been done already by some of the weeds that look like mustard- but that spraying might still be called for to help reduce harvesttime problems when that time arrives.
Speaking of harvest, Edwards says the crop is well ahead of normal- and that he is concerned about what a cold snap with freezing temperatures could do to the 2012 crop across the state. He believes we are easily two weeks ahead of normal as it now stands.
Most of our interview can be seen by clicking on the play button in the video box below. However, we did do an "audio only" segment with Dr. Edwards where he admonishes all wheat producers to look immediately at whether it will be worth it in 2012 to apply a fungicide or not. He says that in previous years, it has helped improve final yields by up to 10%- but that it has to be done in advance of seeing any disease- and in fact- should be applied now. You can hear that portion of our conversation with Jeff Edwards by clicking on the LISTEN BAR below (under the video)
This report is a part of our WheatWatch 2012 series on this year's Hard Red Winter wheat crop in Oklahoma- and this report is a service of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission. Click here for their website to learn more about how they are working hard for wheat producers all across Oklahoma.
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