Published: May 10, 2008 07:42 am            

Rain came at good time for wheat

This week’s rain has been quite “timely” for wheat producers, who have had a drier spring than they would like.

“These timely rains will have a positive effect on the amount and quality of wheat produced,” said Terry Nelson, director of the Woodward County OSU Extension Office.

“Presently we’re at this stage in wheat growth and development where the plant is needing the largest amount of daily moisture,” Nelson explained, noting “it needs the moisture for seed development.”

According to experts, while winter wheat goes dormant during the coldest times of year here, the time between when the flag leaf appears and harvest of the crop represents 75 percent of photosynthesis that happens in the the whole plant’s life.

So while the moisture from the rain is good, the continued cloudy weather is not so good, according to Mark Hodges, executive director for the Oklahoma Wheat Commission.

“We don’t need a lot of cool, cloudy weather, because it promotes disease,” he said.

“The type of disease we’re dealing with needs free moisture on the surface on the plant to live,” explained Tim Bartram, executive director of the Oklahoma Wheat Growers Association.

While thankful for the moisture from recent rains, producers now need several days of sunshine and moderate temperatures to make sure the moisture does more good than harm, he said.

Besides drying out the surface of the plant to protect it from disease, Bartram said producers “need sunlight for the plant to take advantage of the moisture that is now in the ground.”

“Sometime in the next three weeks, we need warmer, drier weather,” Hodges agreed. “If we have that, it will reduce the possibility of diseases and increase yield.”

Even with perfect conditions, Hodges said it looks like this year’s wheat yield will be at or slightly below normal. Rain is needed early in the season for hard red winter wheat and this year, northwestern Oklahoma had little rainfall between January and April.

“So we need everything we can to minimize reduction of yield,” he said.

The first public estimate of this year’s anticipated wheat yield was released Wednesday, Bartram said, noting the estimate was for 149 million bushels across the state, which he said was close to the long-term average.

But since there are a few weeks to go until wheat harvesting will begin, that estimate is likely to change.

This is a hard lesson that producers learned last year, when several positive predictions for a high yield of high quality wheat were washed out by heavy rains during harvest time, Nelson said

So as they prepare for harvest this year, Bartram said “everybody’s kind of holding their breath, hoping to get the crop in the bin.”

A good crop this year will mean something wholly different than it did last year.

In the last two months, the price of wheat has hit some all time highs, with futures as high as nearly $12 per bushel.

Wednesday’s closing price fluctuated around the state from about $7.58 to $8.31 per bushel, nearly double what it was this time last year, according to the Department of Agriculture.

        

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