(Agriculture.com) – The 2015 winter wheat harvest is in various stages of completion throughout Texas, Oklahoma and southern Kansas. The latest weekly harvest report from U.S. Wheat Associates says the crop is nearly cut out in northern Texas, but rain in central Texas, Oklahoma and southern Kansas have slowed progress.
Rain events last weekend over much of the winter wheat belt – plus high humidity since – stopped harvest altogether, although combines are firing up today.
Ron Smith, a custom harvester from Jewell, Kansas, says he did get 11 days of consecutive harvesting completed in north central Texas between Chillicothe and Vernon before getting rained out June 11.
Yields there were in the 20- to 30-bushel per acre range, so somewhat disappointing. Like many harvesters, Smith’s crew has been dodging mudholes to get the crop harvested. And like many harvesters, there is always a tractor or dozer nearby to help dislodge stuck combines.
“It’s a lot better job when it’s dry,” he admits. “We had a bulldozer pull us out because it’s too slick for a four-wheel-drive tractor to get traction.”
Crop yield and quality are variable. In Texas and Oklahoma, test weights range from 55 to 60 pounds per bushel (60 pounds is the norm), with protein content at about 12%, which is right at the industry standard.
Smith says the wheat in Texas has been mostly disease-free, except for stripe and leaf rust. So prevalent are these rust pathogens throughout wheat country, Steve Baenziger, wheat breeder at the University of Nebraska, is quoted in a multi-state wheat disease update that, “…on those plants lucky enough to have leaves free of stripe rust, they are getting infected with leaf rust.”
Moving north into Oklahoma and Kansas, additional disease reports continue to pour in: Elsewhere in winter wheat country, however, disease reports continue to pour in: wheat streak mosaic, black chaff and fusarium head blight.
As crews move into Kansas, where wheat harvest is just getting started, they are finding the wheat crop in a bit better shape. Keith Strohl, who farms in Kingman County, Kansas, says yields range from 35 to 55 bushels per acre, with test weights above 60 pounds per bushel. Nearly three-inches of rain the last week could result in lower test weights, Strohl predicts.
In Kansas, harvest is at least as far north as Marquette, in the central part of the state. The Mid Kansas Coop location there took its first sample of wheat on Wednesday.
As of June 11, winter wheat harvest is 47% complete in Texas, 38% complete in Oklahoma and 2% complete in Kansas, according to the weekly Crop Progress Reports from USDA.
