Wheeler Brothers’ Austin Lafferty has some high hopes for the upcoming wheat harvest.
“It’s going to be much better than the last two, without question,” he said Tuesday. “The last two were a little lean, but this one has the potential to be a good one.”
Oklahoma State University Extension Area Agronomist Specialist Josh Bushong agreed when he estimated the wheat crop during the early May state wheat tour. He suggested there will be 2.6 million acres harvested with an average harvest of 33.6 acres per bushel. That puts the total production at 89.61 million bushels.
The Oklahoma Grain and Feed Association members logged slightly different numbers, suggesting 2.74 million acres harvested, an average of 37.3 bushels per acre and a total of 102 million bushels.
Lafferty weighed in on the members’ side of the scale. “I think we could see averages in the upper 30s pretty easily,” he said. “We have that potential. We will see some that are less, but some that are quite a bit more.”
Bushong’s numbers are a little dusty, but he said the crop has been 2-3 weeks ahead of schedule most of the spring. When considering recent storms across the state, he said most of the areas have survived very well.
Bushong added that the additional moisture here at the end of the growing season coupled with the mild temperatures – not too hot -- should help the crop finish strong.
Lafferty thinks there could be a number of producers who are ready to start the harvest during the last week of May.
“We’ll see some before the end of the month, that last week in May. I truly think we’ll see samples,” he added.
Samples are small amounts of grain growers bring in to the elevators to determine the moisture content, which in turn helps them decide when it is time to harvest the entire crop.