From staff reports Mike Schulte of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission recently gave an overview of 2024’s hard red winter wheat harvest in Oklahoma. Schulte said this y ear’s crop was two weeks ahead of schedule, with around 90% of the state ’s harvest now complete.
Despite moisture and other weather-related challenges in some parts of the state , the harvest continued producing high-quality wheat for the market.
“We might get an inch to threetenths of moisture, then it would dry out and producers would get to cut the next d ay, then we would get the same thing the following day,” he said. “Every other day, producers were going out into the f ield in southwest and central Oklahoma. Despite those challenges, we are still far ahead of schedule compared to where we are on the f iveyear average for USDA.”
In the latest USDA-NASS crop progress report, winter wheat harvested reached 83%, up 35 points from the previous week and 46 points from normal.
With the help of rains in April and May, alongside high-quality genetics, Schulte said the cr op yielded better than expected.
“I am hearing a lot of yields in the mid-40s to mid-50s in so uthern Oklahoma up into northern Oklahoma,” Schulte said. “ There are those instances few and far between where we have some really intensive management producers that have tried to push the yield envelope with the inputs of the cr op. In those areas, it was not uncommon to have some 70- a nd 80-bushel yields. I have heard of some as high as 90 a nd maybe 110. Again, those are few and far between instances where they really put the inputs to the cr op.”
Schulte commended the v arieties planted this year for their great yields and their ability to with stand drought and disease.
“Overall, the quality of the cr op is going to be g ood from this region and certainly something millers and bakers are going to want to take a look at when we go into that marketing here in the f uture once we get the crop quality summaries out from U.S. Wheat in September,” he said.
Lastly, Schulte addressed the latest USDA Crop Production report, which estimated Oklahoma to yield 38 bushels per acre, up 10 bushels from last year.
“I think we will be bet ter than 38 (bushels per acre) just based off of what we have heard,” Schulte said. “I want to go ahead and try to be positively optimistic for that, so I am going to say 40 to 42. I think it is maybe going to be e ven closer to 42 than 40.”