Published: July 08, 2008 07:13 am      

Wheat harvest better than last year for most

Harvesting crews have all but moved north about a week ago.

The region’s wheat producers can breathe a sigh of relief that the crop is in and in most areas, was considered better than last years, according to experts.

“It wasn’t too bad out here from Shattuck east,” said W.B. Johnston Grain Western Regional Manager, Kenton Burgess. “But from Shattuck west it was a different story.”

Burgess said averages, save those fields that were hit with hail just before harvest time, were from 25 to 35 bushels per acre from the Shattuck area east.

Quality was fair with weights averaging around 59 pounds per bushel, Burgess said.

Yields from west of Shattuck were lower as a result of some severe thunderstorms and hail that shattered the wheat heads and dropped a lot of the grains on the ground, Burgess said.

Farmers east of Shattuck contended with rain that somewhat reduced the weight of the grain. But primarily the rains caused the harvest to drag on longer than many custom harvesters were willing to stay, since wheat in Kansas ripened within about three weeks after wheat in Northwestern Oklahoma, said Oklahoma Wheat Commission spokesman, Mark Hodges.

Farmers planted 5.7 million acres to wheat with 4.5 million harvested so far, Hodges said.

“For all practical purposes we are done with wheat harvest,” Hodges said. “There are still a few producers who are cutting wheat, but it would be ones who had numerous acres and are using their own combine, or they are waiting for muddy areas to dry up. Generally that is less than five percent of the area in the state.”

Hodges said unlike last year, whereby the western portion of the state carried much of the wheat harvest, it was western farmers this year who suffered.

“The further west you went the drier it got, once you got into Texas and Cimarron counties-the dry lands, it was, in most cases nonexistent, in fact no dry land was above 25 bushel and most was significantly less than that,” Hodges said.

He said even irrigated land in the west fared poorer than last year with 50 bushels per acre when it is normally averaging in the upper 80s to lower 90s.

Hodges said he has heard, anecdotally, that Cimarron and Texas Counties have had less than two inches of rain in the last 365 days.

“Now, since harvest is over we will take any moisture,” Hodges said. “Those who have corn or beans planted will echo that request.

To add to the conundrum, wheat price, while more than nearly double that of last year, is barely keeping up with the increase in the costs farmers incur planting for next year.

Both fertilizer and fuel are consuming more money than has been realized even with the dearly doubling of the wheat price from last year to this year, both Hodges and Burgess said.

“If the price goes below $6.50 per bushel, you will have a hard time convincing a producer to plant wheat because they will not get a return on their money.”

Burgess mirrored that sentiment adding that while wheat prices remained somewhat strong throughout harvest, Burgess said the price today has fallen more than 50 cents in just one day.

“Today it is at $7.58 and yesterday, the price of wheat was $8.10,” Burgess said.