Worst Wheat Crop Since 1957- Oklahoma Crop Projected at 62.7 Million Bushels by USDA 

The first estimates for Oklahoma's 2014 wheat crop were issued today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). The area for harvest was set at 3.3 million acres, with a yield of 19.0 bushels per acre deriving a forecast production of 62.7 million bushels. Winter wheat conditions continued to decline into the first week of May, 2014 with 73 percent falling into the poor to very poor condition rating.

Nationally, Winter wheat production is forecast at 1.40 billion bushels, down 9 percent from 2013. As of May 1, the United States yield is forecast at 43.1 bushels per acre, down 4.3 bushels from last year.

Hard Red Winter production, at 746 million bushels, is up slightly from a year ago. Soft Red Winter, at 447 million bushels, is down 21 percent from 2013. White Winter, at 209 million bushels, is down 7 percent from a year ago. Of the White Winter production, 10.9 million bushels are Hard White and 198 million bushels are Soft White.

 Click here for the May 2014 Crop production report from USDA.

The corn and wheat markets both fell sharply after the report's release and commodity broker Tom Leffler said it is not clear why. He said traders will be taking a closer look at the reports over the weekend and Friday's closing numbers could easily reverse when markets reopen Sunday night. You can listen to his analysis by clicking here.

Meanwhile, lots of key numbers made up the monthly WASDE report from the Economic Research Service of the USDA. This report presents USDA's initial assessment of U.S. and world crop supply and demand prospects and U.S. prices for 2014/15. Also presented are the first calendar-year 2015 projections of U.S. livestock, poultry, and dairy products. Because spring planting is still underway in the Northern Hemisphere and remains several months away in the Southern Hemisphere, these projections are highlytentative. Forecasts for U.S. winter wheat area, yield, and production are from the May 9 Crop Production report. For other U.S. crops, the March 31 Prospective Plantings report is used for planted acreage. Methods used to project 2014/15 harvested acreage and yield are noted in each table.

To read more of this story as well as to find a link to the full WASDE report, please click here.  

Wheat Yield Evaporating Each Day Without Rain, Jeff Edwards Says 

Rains across southwestern, central and eastern Oklahoma over the last few days have been a welcome relief, but they didn't fall where they were needed the most. That's according to Dr. Jeff Edwards, Oklahoma State University Extension Wheat Specialist. He spoke Friday at the spring crop field day at the Lahoma Research Station. 

Unlike the crop in other areas of the state, the variety test plots at Lahoma looked surprisingly good, Edwards said. With some rainfall in the next two or three days, the crop in the area could make as many as 40 or 50 bushels per acre he said.

"We are an exception to the rule in how our wheat looks here. In the state as a whole, it's pretty tough going."

He said the rains that fell in the last few days, unfortunately, fell in areas where the wheat crop is largely gone. We still need some rain desperately here in north central Oklahoma where we still have some potential to fill out some grains to save our test weights and still make some wheat."

Click here to read more or to listen to my interview with Jeff Edwards.

 

Ron Sholar Says Time is Running Out on 2014 Canola Crop

Not only have the drought and the April 15th freeze taken their toll on the state's wheat crop, but they have also hit the canola crop very hard.

Speaking at the winter crop tour in Lahoma Friday, Dr. Ron Sholar of the Great Plains Canola Association said producers are trying to maintain a positive attitude, but it becomes more difficult with each passing day. 

"We stayed optimistic and things looked so good coming out of the winter with good stands. We lost some plants, but for the most part we looked really good. We were poised for a really good crop this year and it's been particularly painful to watch the drought just continue to take that potential away."

Sholar said that upon close inspection the canola crop seems to be holding its own and may be doing even a little better than the wheat crop at this point.

"Neither are doing very well under these conditions. I see a lot of wheat up here in the Enid area just flat out dying. It's browning out. I say it's not a good sign when you can't tell if a wheat field has been grazed out or not. That's not where you want to be here in early May or nearly mid May. But the canola is still hanging in there and we still have fields setting pods and if we could just get that rain there's still some potential there, but it's not what it was."

Catch my conversation with Ron Sholar or more of this story by clicking here.

 

OFB's John Collison Says Legislative Session and Right to Farm Are 'Bogged Down'

Oklahoma's legislative session is winding down with about two weeks to go before adjournment. John Collison, vice president of public policy and corporate communications with the Oklahoma Farm Bureau, said except for the budget process, the session is pretty well over right now.  

"If you watch this process, everything's kind of bogged down right now," Collison said. Everything that we've been working on all session, everything that the Speaker's been working on, that the pro-tem's been working on, the governor's been working on is all kind of bogged down."

Collison said that he doesn't really expect much more to come out of this session other than a budget. He said a monkey wrench got thrown into the works when Speaker T.W. Shannon stepped down to run for the U.S. Senate and Jeff Hickman was left to pick up the pieces.

"He's done a great job, but he wasn't prepared. He didn't get the opportunity to get ready."

You can listen to more from John Collison and also see the video of our conversation seen Saturday morning on News9  by clicking here for our webstory.

 

The Smokescreen Lifted on Post-Fire Land Management

Oklahomans are frequently reminded of the devastation that comes with wildfire. Homes, structures and livestock are lost, while landowners who rely on grasslands, shrublands and forests as an enterprise are left trying to figure out how to recover the vegetation and habitat.

"Many people don't understand the role of fire in the ecosystem," said Terry Bidwell, Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extension rangeland ecology and management specialist. "Fire has been, and still is, an essential part of maintaining healthy native grassland, shrubland and forest ecosystems and has positive impacts."

The proper use of prescribed burning will lessen the impacts of wildfire, but there are some management guidelines to follow after a wildfire. "Following a wildfire, management practices need to be applied that encourage desired plant growth," said Bidwell. 

You can read the rest of this story on our website by clicking here.

 

Election Set for Southwest Oklahoma Seat on Oklahoma Wheat Commission

The Oklahoma Wheat Commission will hold an election to fill the District IV opening. The election will be held Wednesday, May 14, 2014, commencing at 1 p.m. at the Cotton County Electric Community Center; located at 302 N. Broadway, Walters, Oklahoma. District IV consists of Caddo, Comanche, Cotton, Greer, Harmon, Jackson, Kiowa and Tillman counties.

All wheat producers within District IV boundaries who are actively engaged in wheat production, have marketed wheat, and have paid a check-off fee and left that fee with the Commission for the current year are eligible to vote. It will be the responsibility of the producer to prove their eligibility to vote by providing a dated grain elevator receipt including the producer's name and amount of wheat sold, and a driver's license or some other form of identification.

Candidates wishing to run in the election must be at least 25 years old, a resident of Oklahoma, engaged in growing wheat in the state for at least five years and must derive a substantial portion of his/her income from growing wheat.

Three nominations will be made at the election, from which the Governor of Oklahoma will appoint one person to serve a five year term with the Oklahoma Wheat Commission.

The Commission's vacancy meeting, which is open to the public, will begin at noon, and the election will begin promptly at 1 p.m. Lunch will be provided at noon by the Oklahoma Wheat Growers Association.

Every wheat producer in the district is urged to participate in this important election. For further information, contact the OWC office at (405) 608- 4350.  

This N That: Ray Sidwell Honored at Lahoma, Rainfall Skimpy Thru This AM and Wheat, Canola and Ag in Classroom Pics on Flickr

This past Friday- both the Oklahoma Wheat Commission and the Division of Ag of Oklahoma State University honored the life and career of the late Ray Sidwell, who served as Superintendent of the North Central Ag Research Station in Lahoma for decades.

Click here for more details and a picture of the Sidwell receiving the award from Dr. Mike Woods and the folks at OSU.

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If you go all the way back to last Thursday morning, you can see there were some nice rains in Kay County in the north central part of the station as well as excellent rainfall in the southeastern corner of Oklahoma.  From the last 24 hours- Cheyenne wins the prize with just under an inch of rainfall measured at the local Mesonet station.   

However, it was not a widespread rainfall that has been seen to this point- and many areas hoping for an inch of more are not going to get it this go round.   

Click here for a real time three day rainfall map from the Mesonet- which gives you as we write this a look back to Friday morning and forward to 6 AM Monday morning.   

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We have added some pictures up on Flickr over the weekend- and that includes a new album of photos from the Friday Lahoma Wheat Field Day- click here to check out the photos from that field day.  AND- we also have some photos from the Chickasha Wheat Day Tour from April 25, 2014- click here for that set. 

We also added pictures to our Canola 2014 set- these from the recent El Reno Canola Field Day- Click here for that set.

Finally, it took us awhile- but we FINALLY got the Ag in the Classroom Pictures from the Oklahoma Ag Day festivities from earlier this spring- lots of good looking kiddos and state officials smiling for the camera.  Click here to take a look at those photos.