Agricultural News
Wheat Commission's Schulte Says Crop Looking Poor in Northwest Oklahoma
Fri, 15 Feb 2013 17:46:19 CST
Spotty precipitation over the last couple of weeks has helped the wheat crop in some areas, but Mike Schulte, executive director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission says this year's crop has a lot of producers concerned. Schulte spoke with Radio Oklahoma Network Farm Director Ron Hays and will appear on "In the Field" Saturday morning about 6:40 on News 9.
"When you look at this year with regards to the moisture content and producers getting the crop out, they just really haven't had a chance anywhere," Schulte said. In a lot of cases and instances producers planted the crop on six-tenths of moisture and that's all they had had until the first of January.
"In the northwest part of the state we haven't seen a lot of emergence yet. We have seen some germination taking place now because of the moisture we received on the 1st of January and we're hoping with this snow the past week we will see some emergence. But, you know, this time of year for the wheat to be emerging that's just really, really late. And I think that producer's got to make that decision. I feel like there's going to be a lot of crop insurance collected up in the northwest part of the state. And that's really our strong area that always comes on for heavy production. So I think going into this crop it's going to have a significant impact on what we take in in the state this year."
He said the recent snow in the Panhandle has been beneficial and earlier rains in the southwest part of the state have helped sustain the crop in that area. And the same is true in central Oklahoma. But, Schulte said, many producers will need timely rains from here on out to have any hope of harvesting a crop.
You can hear the full interview with Mike Schulte by clicking on the LISTEN BAR below.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI
Top Agricultural News
More Headlines...
