Agricultural News
OSU's Dr. Amanda Silva Says Wheat Looks Good in Chickasha, but Bleak in Other Areas of the State
Fri, 29 Apr 2022 16:44:51 CDT
Extension Specialist for Small Grains at OSU, Dr. Amanda Silva has had the opportunity to assess wheat fields across the state, including fields in Walters, Altus, Tipton, Apache, And Chickasha. Farm director KC Sheperd caught up with Silva at the Chickasha field day. While the wheat there looked pretty good, the outlook in some areas is pretty grim, "Unfortunately, there is not a lot of great news, but I'm very happy with what I'm seeing here in Chickasha. What I saw yesterday at Apache, Walters was looking better than what I expected as they got a couple of inches of rain that helped." Silva said it's still a very thin crop and has not tillered that much, but she said it's hanging in there and could use a good rain.
Moving from Walters to Altus, Silva said things started to get critical with crops being very drought-stressed and several fields had already been terminated. Then, moving from Apache to Chickasha, Silva said the crop was still thinner than she would like, but overall the wheat was looking good.
Even though there are good selections of wheat varieties built to tolerate drought conditions, Silva said some varieties do better than others. She said in some scenarios, the drought is just too much to overcome, "It's just too much for any variety, and that's what we are seeing." She Added that this is the worst wheat she's seen in all her years at Oklahoma State, "In talking to producers, it's been one of the worst droughts that they have experienced in the past years too, so it's definitely a very sad year from that perspective."
As for what producers should be thinking about in their fields, Silva said it depends on how the crop looks right now, "They need to look at the potential they believe they have. I know some people are having their insurance crop adjusters come in their fields, so they are adjusting for 2 bushels, yield, and that's their decision, so it's a very critical scenario in that case."
Silva said all hope is not lost, though, "In Some cases, I think we are also in that borderline area. We have some good-looking wheat fields right now, but we do need a little more rain to hold up on those yields that are still there." She added, though, if those fields don't see some moisture, we could still see some reduction in yields.
There are producers around the state that have a wheat crop up, and Silva said depending on their potential, most of that wheat is already heading and flowering. Still, disease management will probably not be a big player at this point, "I don't want to say much, but it doesn't look like it. We are not seeing many rusts, so fungicide, for example, they will not need to worry about that." She added that if nitrogen (if needed) was probably already applied. She did say they are seeing some viral disease but added, "there's not much you can do there. The fields are either infected or not, and if they are infected, there are measures we could take."
Silva did want to remind producers to keep their eye out for the next crop season to control volunteer wheat because of increased cases of wheat streak mosaic viruses spreading out in the state. But, Silva added, "As of now, just pray for rain."
To hear KC's complete conversation with Dr. Silva, click or tap below.
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