Published: May 28, 2008 12:10 am            

With a stretch of sunshine, wheat forecast looks bright

Despite recent rain, the Enid area wheat crop is looking good, several experts said Tuesday.

“We’re going to be in pretty good shape,” said Roger Don Gribble, Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service northwest area agronomist.

He said harvest should start south of Enid in 10 to 14 days, so “we would prefer not to have (rain anymore).”

Test weight could be lost if the rain continues, he said.

“We need some drying,” Gribble said.

Some of the better wheat south of Okeene and west of Kingfisher around Loyal could be cut by the end of the week, he said, if conditions are favorable.

The latest forecast for the 2008 crop from U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statis-tics Service predicts Oklaho-ma will harvest 148.5 million bushels of wheat, up substantially from dismal crops the past two years.

If that forecast holds true, it would mean an average crop for the Sooner State. In 2006, Oklahoma’s crop was hurt by drought and totaled just 81.6 million bushels. Last year, pros-pects for the crop were much better, but late rain at harvesttime meant much of the grain wasn’t even cut, as farmers couldn’t get combines into their fields. Production amounted to 98 million bushels.

“Everybody’s just holding their breath now, hoping we get it in without it being harvested by Mother Nature,” Gribble said.

Lee Redman, manager of Carrier Mill and Elevator, said the crop in that area has escaped problems.

“We’ve been fortunate we haven’t had any hail,” he said. “I don’t think we’ve had any damage.”

Tim Bartram, executive director of Oklahoma Wheat Growers Association, said he has heard no reports of widespread damage.

“Everything I’ve seen so far looks pretty good,” he said.

He said farmers in an area north of Enid from Alva to Newkirk are “looking at a really good crop,” in places that did not receive hail damage.

Kay County, though, may have some problems because of strong thunderstorms — packing large hail and at least one tornado — that moved through Monday, Gribble said.

Assessment is ongoing, he said, so the extent of damage is not known. The area around Newkirk, Ponca City and Blackwell suffered hail damage, Bartram said.

“It just de-pends on where you’re standing,” Gribble said. “It goes from good to bad” as you move from west to east across the area.

Harvest has started in far southwest Oklahoma, Bar-tram said, and test weights are looking good.

To be grade No. 1, wheat must be 60 pounds per bushel, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

He said yields have been what was expected, ranging from 20 to 50 bushels an acre, depending on the amount of rain a particular field received.

According to NASS, 10 percent of Oklahoma’s wheat is rated in excellent condition, with 45 percent rated good and 28 percent fair. Just 17 percent is rated poor or very poor.

Last year at this time, 21 percent of the crop was rated excellent, according to NASS, with 48 percent rated good and 22 percent rated fair. Just 9 percent was rated poor or very poor.

“This time last year,” Bartram said, “we were probably looking at a better crop” than this year, but that was before the late, rain-wrecked harvest.