Kansas Wheat Improving, Oklahoma Beyond Help
My chums at StormX offer an interesting insight into winter wheat crop developments today following last night's USDA ratings.
Kansas wheat has made steady improvement with heavy rainfall over the past couple of weeks, while wheat has been progressing through the rapid-growth phase, they say. The important heading stage will begin next week with an ample store of ground moisture. Wheat is gaining back lost yield potential, after a long winter drought. A statewide average yield of 46 bushels per acre is possible, if the weather continues to be favourable.
The crucial factor for Kansas wheat is that it was immature when a hard freeze developed in early April and did not suffer lasting damage, though development was set back for a time, say StormX. Wheat ratings have improved sharply in the past 2 weeks. As of April 25th, 48% of Kansas wheat was good-excellent, 37% was fair and 15% was poor-very poor. This was the highest condition report since last fall.
Unfortunately, it's a completely different story in Oklahoma, where wheat keeps worsening in the aftermath of a hard freeze that developed April 7th. Crop ratings declined to 9% good, 27% fair and 64% poor-very poor on April 25th, down sharply from 3 weeks ago.
Wheat in west-central and southwest Oklahoma was in the vulnerable booting stage when temperatures dropped to the low 20s F April 7th, leading to devastating losses where stems were damaged or killed. If water and nutrients cannot be transferred through the stems to the grain heads, kernels will never develop. Production is expected to shrink 35-50% in the affected crop districts, conclude StormX.
Kansas wheat has made steady improvement with heavy rainfall over the past couple of weeks, while wheat has been progressing through the rapid-growth phase, they say. The important heading stage will begin next week with an ample store of ground moisture. Wheat is gaining back lost yield potential, after a long winter drought. A statewide average yield of 46 bushels per acre is possible, if the weather continues to be favourable.
The crucial factor for Kansas wheat is that it was immature when a hard freeze developed in early April and did not suffer lasting damage, though development was set back for a time, say StormX. Wheat ratings have improved sharply in the past 2 weeks. As of April 25th, 48% of Kansas wheat was good-excellent, 37% was fair and 15% was poor-very poor. This was the highest condition report since last fall.
Unfortunately, it's a completely different story in Oklahoma, where wheat keeps worsening in the aftermath of a hard freeze that developed April 7th. Crop ratings declined to 9% good, 27% fair and 64% poor-very poor on April 25th, down sharply from 3 weeks ago.
Wheat in west-central and southwest Oklahoma was in the vulnerable booting stage when temperatures dropped to the low 20s F April 7th, leading to devastating losses where stems were damaged or killed. If water and nutrients cannot be transferred through the stems to the grain heads, kernels will never develop. Production is expected to shrink 35-50% in the affected crop districts, conclude StormX.
