Published: June 17, 2007 12:35 pm      

Producers hope for hot, dry days

Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day.

Recent storms have wheat producers singing that classic childhood tune.

Even producers in the panhandle, who have not had as much rain as the rest of the state, are hoping that the skies will soon clear up.

Tom Stephens, chairman of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission from Guymon, said the rain has delayed the start of the wheat harvest in his area. He still expects the area will produce good yields as long as the moisture does not continue.

But for many other areas, the rain has already done its damage.

Mark Hodges, executive director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission, said Hobart in southwest Oklahoma was perhaps the hardest hit.

Tim Bartram, executive director of the Oklahoma Wheat Growers Association, agreed and said flooding in the Hobart area could mean that a harvest this year may not be possible.

With other rivers, including the Cimarron, at full capacity, he said any more rain might wipe out other areas as well.

Bartram said more rain could also lead to other problems like lodged wheat, encroaching weeds and grass, and sprouting heads.

He said one of the biggest concerns is if the wheat starts to sprout a head.

Wheat grains have a special starch, he explained, which are important when the grain is used to make bread. But when the grains start to sprout, that starch is broken down and the grain is no longer good for making bread, he said.

“Too much sprouting and it becomes a feed,” Bartram said, noting that feed prices are much lower than the usual grain prices.

Lodged wheat, which is wheat that has fallen over, is also a major problem.

Hodges said lodged wheat can also hit producer’s pocketbooks since it takes more fuel to cut and thrash fallen wheat.

It can also cost farmers time because when the wheat is laying down, it takes longer for the soil to dry out enough so cutting can start, he said.

More rain means more trouble for wheat as well, Hodges said.

“From a wheat standpoint, rain is not positive at this point,” he said.

And from freeze damage to disease problems, wheat producers have already had enough trouble this year.

As Norman Nelson, the manager of the W. B. Johnson Grain Elevator in Sharon, put it, most wheat producers right now are thinking, “it can rain when the harvest is over.”

He said the rain has definitely delayed the harvest at least for a couple of days, which is not good when only 25 percent the crop has been cut.

Bartram said that the rain delay could be as much as a week to a week and a half in some areas – if Friday was the last of the moisture.

Hodges said the delay will vary depending upon the area, since some areas were soaked more than others.

But until the skies clear up, there is no way to know how soon things will dry up.

Both Hodges and Bartram said it is not a matter of when the grain will dry out, but a matter of when the ground will be dry enough to sustain the equipment.

And until the harvest resumes there is no way to know just how much damage the recent storms have caused to the wheat.

Nelson said that until more wheat is cut there is no way to know how the rain has affected test weights, although he is sure they will be lower.

“They’ll be lower,” he said. “We just don’t know how much lower.”

For some areas that have already seen low test weights, Bartram said the storms could mean an even more dramatic decrease. He said there are areas that have already seen a 10 percent loss, with beginning test weights around 50 pounds per bushel, rather than the typical 60 pounds.

With the rain, he said the area may be looking at another 10 percent loss or more.

Hodges explained that the weight decreases because rain makes the wheat grains swell, thus increasing their volume but not the weight. When the grains dry out, they do not return to their original size, but remain a bit larger than normal.

Because the grains are bigger, fewer of them will fit in a bushel, he said. This decreases the test weight of pounds per bushel, since fewer grains weigh less.

“We’ll just have to see what it looks like when the harvest resumes,” Hodges said.

On a positive note, Bartram said the rain has caused wheat prices to go up.

“In the past week, prices have gone up about 70 cents,” he said, “ and are approaching record highs.”