Agricultural News
Another Tough Year for Southwest Oklahoma Producers like Keeff Felty
Fri, 13 May 2022 13:18:14 CDT
At the Lahoma Field Day, Farm Director KC Sheperd visited with Keeff Felty, Treasurer of the National Association of Wheat Growers and a wheat producer from Jackson County. Sheperd and Felty talked about his wheat crop this year and how drought conditions and weather have impacted everyone's crop this year as a whole.
"Our crop has been suffering pretty severely all growing season this year with the drought and the dry weather conditions we have been having," Felty said. "We have had two rain events in the last 7 days. One was a week ago, Wednesday, and one this past Tuesday evening. It varied across the county, as it usually does in our part of the state."
With high temperatures and high winds, Felty said visible moisture from the first rain event was gone by the time the second rain came around. Felty believes the wheat, which is still viable because it was established in the middle part of October when there was moisture, has a higher chance of benefitting from these rains.
The shorter wheat heads being seen so frequently are a function of the weather conditions, Felty said.
"Varieties are really starting to play a large role in what survived and what is still looking good and harvestable," Felty said. "It is all going to be short this year because of the growing conditions."
This is definitely going to go down as one of the worst years in Southwest Oklahoma, Felty said. The rate of not making it to harvest, he added, is really high.
"There is plenty of wheat that has already been taken out," Felty said.
Some wheat, Felty said, didn't emerge at all and some came up but didn't get adequate moisture and good growing conditions to survive.
"It's going to be very limited, and a lot of people are getting concerned about being able to have their own self-stored seed wheat," Felty said.
The lake north of Altus, Felty said, which is primarily for irrigation, has not been recharged enough to supply the water it feeds crops within a normal year.
"Last summer we were fortunate to get a little flow and a wet July, which is relatively unusual, so we were able to go ahead and complete those summer crops last year," Felty said.
At this point, Felty said they will have to wait and see what happens. The long term does not look good for a favorable recharge this year, he added.
"Looking at the wheat, or what still looks like wheat, and will be harvestable, it is going to be down as far as yield and total production, but prices are going to help make up for quite a bit of that this year, especially over where we have been in the last few years," Felty said. "So, that's a plus. The price is definitely going to help with this wheat harvest."
Click the LISTEN BAR below to hear more from KC Sheperd and Keeff Felty on this year's wheat crop.
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