Published: April 11, 2008 11:52 pm         

Ag experts give freeze forecasts a cold shoulder

The possibility of a freeze this weekend isn’t worrying agriculture experts too much as they look at the wheat crop.

There are a couple of reasons for their outlook.

One, temperatures aren’t expected to get that cold in the Enid area. The National Weather Service is forecasting a low of 34 Saturday night and a low of 33 Sunday night.

Second, the wheat crop is not as far along in its development as it was last year, when an April freeze caused considerable damage.

“My gut feeling is it’s not far along enough to hurt us,” said Tim Bartram, Oklahoma Wheat Growers Association executive director. “I don’t think we are at much risk. We are much farther behind this year.”

Later planting and cooler weather this spring have put the crop’s development back.

“We have not had growing conditions and temperatures,” Bartram said, for optimum growth.

Jeff Bedwell, Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service ag educator in Garfield County, said area wheat is about six to eight days behind in development from where it was last year. That makes it more able to handle the cold.

At the current development stage, he said, experts don’t anticipate damage unless the temperature falls below 28 degrees for two hours or more.

“I don’t think we are looking at a freeze that’s really going to zing us,” Bedwell said. “I haven’t seen anything nearly that low on any forecasts.”

Some low-lying areas, he said, could see frost, but it would be isolated.

Possible damage could vary, depending on how low the temperature falls, Bedwell said.

Head entrapment — a case in which wheat beards get tied up in the collar and trap the wheat head, which normally would push straight up but instead pushes out the side — could happen, he said. That would prevent the beards from standing up, flowing in the breeze and catching pollen, thus affecting pollination.

There also could be instances in which parts of the heads are blank or where heads are totally blank, he said.

In a severe freeze, nodes at the bottom of the plants could be damaged, he said, and the wheat could fall over. Damage also could be sustained by the flag leaf, the main sunlight-absorbing part of the plant when the head is out.

All of those cases, though, depend on the strength of the freeze and the stage of development of the crop, he said.

Damage might not be noticeable until later on in the maturity cycle, Bedwell said.

Last year, Bartram said, experts “initially didn’t think there was that much damage,” but as the crop matured signs of damage became more apparent.

This year, though, the worries aren’t there.

“The market doesn’t seem worried about the reports,” Bartram said.

In fact, prices on the Kansas Board of Trade went down Friday, he said.