Agricultural News
Wheatwatch 2013: Oklahoma Crop Conditon Continues to Slide Despite Rains
Tue, 13 Nov 2012 16:57:24 CST
The condition of the Oklahoma winter wheat crop continues to deteriorate rapidly without significant soaking rains. A cold front brought rains to much of the state excluding the Panhandle last weekend, but it proved to be too little, too late in many areas.
The latest USDA Crop Progress and Condition reports lists 49 percent of the state's crop in fair condition, 38 percent in poor or very poor shape, with 12 percent listed as good and only one percent in the excellent category.
As part of this year's Wheatwatch, Mike Schulte, executive director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission, says things are looking a little bleak compared to last year.
"In southwest and central Oklahoma there are still places where the moisture maybe didn't fall in areas that specifically needed it. Going into winter right now you can look at the crop and see where maybe it had enough moisture to bring the crop up in those regions where they'd received rain, but that they didn't maybe receive up in the northern parts of the state. Where that crop had sprouted, it does look like it is going backwards. And, in places, it looks like it's curling up and dying out in the field."
Schulte says it may be too late for some producers who had been waiting to see if their crop would come up before thoughts of replanting. He says many of those producers will now have to wait and possibly be ready to sow a spring or summer crop in hopes of salvaging some income. Other producers were a little more fortunate.
"Up in the northern and northwestern parts of the state we did receive some moisture this past weekend that was much-needed moisture. And in a lot of those regions, the crop hadn't even sprouted yet so we're hopeful that that is going to allow the crop to sprout and maybe we can get some more moisture from here on out that's going to help us."
Schulte says that the southern and central parts of the state have had a little more rain than others and there are even a few reports of cattle on wheat pasture in those areas. He says that putting cattle out on the wheat, however, may not be because the wheat is in such great shape.
"I think in many instances the producers were just needing that forage, so they're going to go ahead and try to use it."
Even though the crop, so far, isn't looking promising, Schulte says if the weather improves the state shouldn't be in such bad shape come springtime. Plantings are on par with 2012.
"Last year we were at 5.4 million acres that was planted. Four-point-three million acres of that was harvested. For what we've been hearing from producers, I think we're probably going to be somewhere around that 5.2 to 5.4 million acre range planted. I think we might be just a little bit lower than last year just because producers were waiting to see what their options were and with the drought situations and no sub moisture we might see a little less acreage."
Schulte said some producers have opted to rotate some of their wheat acres into canola which should help clean up their fields when they rotate back to wheat next year.
Overall, Schulte says, it's a little hard to be optimistic about the 2013 crop just now.
"Things going into winter right now do not look favorable. Sub moisture is going to be vital for this crop. It's something we had more sub moisture last year so when we received the rains they were received in a timely manner at the right time and allowed us to bring on at least bring on a decent crop. But this year, if we don't have the moisture, we're not going to see a situation like last year. So we do have concerns because of the sub moisture levels."
You can read the current Oklahoma Crop Progress and Condition report by clicking here.
Wheatwatch is a service of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for the full interview with Mike Schulte. You can find the latest news and more information about all the services offered by the Oklahoma Wheat Commission on their website by clicking here.
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