Agricultural News
ICYMI- Mark Hodges Talks Perfect Grain Fill Weather for Parts of Oklahoma in May- Bountiful Wheat Harvest Follows
Mon, 20 Jun 2016 03:43:57 CDT
In Case You Missed it- this past Saturday, Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays talked with Mark Hodges with Plains Grains about the 2016 Southern Plains hard red winter wheat harvest on his In the Field video feature seen on KWTV News9 in Oklahoma City. Click on the play button in the video box below to see their conversation- and you can read more about Hodges has to say about the 2016 harvest season- and hear their off camera visit in the story under the video box-
News9.com - Oklahoma City, OK - News, Weather, Video and Sports |
Despite concerns about a lack of rain throughout the first part of the year and then nearly too much rain in late spring, Plains Grains Executive Director Mark Hodges says producers are seeing drastic improvements in their wheat as the Oklahoma harvest continues.
In early May crop scouts were specifically worried about yields in north central Oklahoma, but that area seems to be harvesting some of the state's best wheat. Hodges says that says a lot about the importance of timely moisture as the grain begins to fill. "What it'll show you is how much influence that weather makes from the point at when the crop scouts were out there, which was April or early May, until maturity," he says. "The weather in that timeframe makes a world of difference. Really cool moisture, plenty of moisture in the profile and we were protected in most cases from diseases, and so it really allowed that crop to reach maximum yield potential."
Plains Grains is well known for the work they do in sampling the functionalities of wheat. When it comes to test weights, Hodges says this year really depended on your location in the state. The northern half saw "phenomenal" test weights, while late season rains diminished those test weights in southern Oklahoma. He says these strong test weights are a good indicator to millers about the amount of flour that can be produced. Protein, which Hodges says is the building block for how the flour is going to eventually perform, is measured in both quantity and quality. While the quality looks very good, he says the quantity is actually lower this year because it is diluted across the high test weights.
"What that tells us is that if we can add a little bit of protein to the crop through blending - whether that be as hard red winter wheat harvest moves northward or we have to pull in some spring wheat to add a little more protein to it - we're very encouraged about what that end product can be because it is quality protein we're looking at," Hodges says.
Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays talked with Hodges about the 2016 wheat crop on Friday, including what things are looking like in Kansas and overall production numbers. Click on the LISTEN BAR below to hear the complete interview.
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