Agricultural News
Oklahoma Wheat Commission's Mike Schulte- Hot Temperatures Speeding Up Wheat Crop Maturity and Likely Hurting Quality
Sun, 15 May 2022 07:27:44 CDT
The lineup of OSU wheat variety plot tours is about two thirds of the way complete- and while good wheat has been seen at several of the locations- including Chickasha and Lahoma- Mike Schulte, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission, says there are large parts of the Oklahoma wheat belt that simply will not be able to produce anywhere close to even an average crop in 2022.
Schulte talked with Oklahoma Farm Report's Ron Hays about the crop on the sidelines of the Bread Tasting Event sponsored by Chisholm Trail Milling in Enid on Friday afternoon.
Hays asked Schulte about the production numbers that we have seen in the last couple of weeks on the 2022 Oklahoma crop- "USDA has us at 60 million bushels this week- Oklahoma Grain and Feed last week on their estimate had us at 57 million bushels- I think we are probably more in line with the Oklahoma Grain and Feed estimate and I think as we continue down this road of having 105 degree temperature days in southwest Oklahoma and temperatures in the mid 90s in central and northwest Oklahoma- you know we are not getting the grain fill that we need for the crop out there- we are not getting the cloud cover right now so things are going to along fast I think in the ripening stage and that's not what we wanted with all the stress the crop has had at this point in time due to the drought situation.
Schulte adds that the recent rains have helped and we will harvest some wheat- but the heat in the filling stage could hurt test weights and present quality problems in much of the wheat that is harvested in the near future.
Mike Schulte has seen a lot of the crop in recent days from the Red River northward into north central Oklahoma and then out into the Panhandle- you can get his take on the 2022 crop by listening to his conversation with Ron Hays by clicking on the Listen Bar below.
There are still several wheat plot tours planned in the northern half of the state- click here for the full list. You can also get directions from your extension agent and check out variety plots on your own that have already had a tour as those plots near maturity.
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