Experts see dim outlook for wheat

Wheat production for Oklahoma this year will be bleak in comparison to last year.

That is the consensus of experts around the state.

Executive Director Mike Schulte of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission said that last year, the wheat industry in Oklahoma was “right at $1 billion.”

“There will be a half billion dollar loss this year for Oklahoma,” Schulte said

Drought, a late freeze and too much rain later in the season were to blame for the drop in wheat production, according to Tim Bartram, executive director of the Oklahoma Wheat Growers Association.

“There will be a harvest,” Bartram said. “How bad it is needs to be determined. Reports of the little bit we’ve had (harvested) in Southwestern Oklahoma have not been promising, and there is concern in Northwestern Oklahoma about what we have.

“In the southwestern part of the state, there was drought, then some freezing injury that finished off the last of it,” he said. “In the northwestern part of the state, there was a freeze late in the season, then too much rain. Some of the wheat is white from water standing on it so long.”

While there are some spots where wheat will be “good,” about 50 percent of the average harvested in Oklahoma will be seen this year, Bartram said.

He couldn’t give an estimate of how much of the wheat would be insured.

“We don’t know,” he said.

He said in some cases where wheat suffered from the freeze, it may have berries but be laying down.

With special equipment it could be harvested, Bartram said.

“Farmers can use a flex head and pick up an extra three to five bushels, but there are probably not a lot of producers with those headers,” he said.

“It looks pretty bleak,” he said, “but how bleak -- we don’t know yet.”

While harvest in the southwestern part of the state has begun, Bartram could not give a certain week as to when harvest in Northwestern Oklahoma would begin.

“It is somewhat of an unknown,” he said, noting, “It just depends on the weather.”

Schulte said he thought harvest in the Woodward area could begin in two to two-and-half weeks.

The plants have been in a stressful situation with the drought and the freeze, he said, noting, “In Eldorado, Oklahoma, by the Texas line, five to 10 bushels” were harvested. “It was an early field.”

He noted that while the production was down, test weights on the wheat were good, “but the yields aren’t there.”

The Woodward area would suffer the same problems with yields, he said.

Schulte pointed out that the U.S. Department of Agriculture figured about 80.5 million bushels would be harvested this year in Oklahoma.

“Last year it was 166.5 million bushels,” he said. “So, when you look at that yield, you are looking at less than half.

“It’s going to be a challenging year for producers this year -- and elevators,” he said.

J.T. Winters Jr. of Mooreland, who is a producer, said he thought the wheat in the area was about three weeks or more away from being harvested.

“We’re always hopeful,” he said, when asked about the yield. “There’s always next year. There was some wheat that didn’t get hailed on and was planted a little later, but we’re down 40 percent for the county compared to last year,” he said.