Agricultural News
As Wheat Harvest Winds Down, Crop Quality and Marketing Now Take Center Stage
Fri, 01 Jun 2012 16:15:52 CDT
Wheat harvest in Oklahoma is about two-thirds complete approaching the first weekend in June according to estimates from Plains Grains. Mark Hodges spoke with Ron Hays and says things are moving about as rapidly as they can given the weather and a shortage of harvest crews.
"Historically, the reason we're early is because we've had a drought on the front end and not, at least, on the tail end and that, of course really changes things, changes the dynamics," Hodges says.
Due to the earliness of harvest, crews weren't ready to come south so there has been a shortage of combines and trucks. Even if we had sufficient trucks, Hodges says there is a shortage of drivers. Competition for drivers with the boom in drivers needed in the oilfield has left wheat producers a little short, but the crop is going in the bin and Hodges says concerns are now turning toward yield and quality issues.
"We really didn't have enough water to finish out that crop and so we ended up with shriveled berries. We're going to end up with small berries. That's pretty uniform right now all the way from Texas through Kansas. And, of course, we aren't going to have quite as good of a crop as we thought we were going to have a couple of months ago. That third berry never filled. The plants had too many tillers and just shut down and so we ended up with smaller crops."
He says the quality of the wheat not only varies from region to region, but this year it also varies almost from field to field.
"This year, more than any other year that I know of in the past, it's really a mosaic pattern of where we've ended up with higher protein in an area and then, maybe, 50 miles from there be really low protein on a fairly widespread basis. And then we have a lot of what we call grainsheds or regions where we've got low protein and high protein coming into the same terminals-I mean really low protein and really high protein coming into the same terminals. And it's something we're going to have to--the miller is going to have to deal with to end up with a flour his end user can use."
Marketing wheat that varies widely in quality is more difficult than a uniform crop, but Hodges says, it can be done.
"Millers take a lot of pride in being able to take what they are given and make an end product out of it. They are very good at that. And they'll be able to do that with this crop as well."
He says the miller is "going to have to identify where the quality is he wants to blend and then be able to go after it."
That's why testing is so important to be able to give millers accurate information they can use to successfully blend their end products.
You can hear Ron Hays' full interview with Mark Hodges by clicking on the LISTEN BAR below.
Click here for more details on how harvest is progressing through Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.
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