Published: June 15, 2007 11:23 pm            

Freeze, pests and flooding takes toll on 2007 wheat crop

Almost anything that could go wrong with this year’s wheat crop has, and some farmers are contemplating whether their crop is worth harvesting at all.

“I’ve never seen a year like this,” said Brenda Sidwell, of Sidwell Insurance Agency in Goltry. “I’ve been in this business for 27 years, and I have never experienced a year like this.

“They don’t know if it’s ever going to dry out. They just don’t even know what to do anymore.”

The otherwise healthy wheat crop took its first hit with a freeze in April. Wheat rust came next, then army worms and other pests invaded. Now, wheat growers can’t get in the fields to harvest because of heavy rains.

Sidwell said she has had area farmers calling with other problems as well. Some of the wheat is so low to the ground, it can’t be picked up to harvest. She said farmers also are worried about sprouting.

Alisha Haymaker, of Plains Partners in Hennessey, said the recent rains have halted any progress harvesters were making.

“It’s pretty much shut ’em down for a while,” Haymaker said.

She said the Hennessey area has seen at least five inches of rain since Wednesday. She estimated about 50 percent of the area’s wheat has been harvested. Up until this week’s rains came, Haymaker said test weights were looking up.

“Some were looking pretty good,” she said. “We were seeing some better test weights.”

But further north and west, that much rain and even more in some places is expected to negatively affect test weights.

Dean Lebeda, manager of Farmers Grain Co. in Medford, confirmed test weights were dropping. Test weights in the area were ranging from 56 to 60 pounds per bushel. That range has dropped to between 51.5 and 56 or 57.

He said only about 15 percent of the wheat in the Medford area had been cut. Because of muddy conditions, farmers are cutting what they can get to, and very few entire fields have been cut.

“Most of them the last several days have been having (insurance) adjusters coming out,” Lebeda said.

Sidwell said those who invested in crop insurance are guaranteed a price and a yield. Those without insurance will have to wait out the weather to cut and hope for improved quality.

“The rain’s gonna lower already low test weights,” said Kurt Anderson, manager of Garber Co-op. “The guys who have insurance will probably try to adjust out.”

Anderson said he figured about 30 percent of the wheat around Garber had been cut, but he said that 30 percent represents about 70 percent of the total crop that will be harvested. The rest will be left to insurance adjusters.

Sidwell said she had insurance adjusters in the area from six states helping with the crisis.

“We consider it a real crisis,” she said.

Sidwell said farmers had sprayed to protect crops from pests and disease and that also has cost them.

She said farmers are calling in with test weights below 50, and the lowest has been 38 pounds per bushel. She said insurance pays on yields of 51 pounds per bushel or less.

Anderson said test weights before this week’s rain averaged about 52 pounds per bushel. Test weights right before Wednesday night’s heavy storms already had dropped to 48 or 49, he said.

“After this ... I just don’t know,” Anderson said.

The National Weather Service is forecasting rain for the Enid area for the next three days. Today’s forecast calls for a 40 percent chance, with the chances dwindling to a 30 percent chance Sunday and Monday. Tuesday’s forecast calls for partly cloudy skies, with highs in the upper-80s. No more rain is in next week’s forecast through Friday.

With test weights so low and the added expenses of fuel and the labor-intensive mud, many farmers are deciding whether its worth harvesting at all, Sidwell said.

The good news, she said, is the government has authorized a disaster payment that will affect 2005, 2006 or 2007, whichever year had the biggest net losses. One change will affect a number of farmers seeking disaster relief, Sidwell said. Those without crop insurance won’t get disaster funds.

“That’s going to affect a lot of them,” she said.

Thankfully, Sidwell said, many farmers took out crop insurance when they planted last fall, fearing another drought year.

“They took it out for a different reason,” she said. “They took it out for the drought, and we’re collecting for a flood.”

U.S. Department of Agricul-ture’s National Agricultural Sta-tistics Service forecast for Okla-homa’s wheat for both production and yield is down slightly from last month. The service said, in its June 1 forecast, predicted Oklahoma’s wheat crop would be 151.8 million bushels, down from 161 million bushels in May.

It also said one quarter of the state’s wheat crop had been harvested by last Sunday — a 22 point jump from the previous week but 20 points behind the five-year average. The condition of the wheat harvested by June 10 also fell from the week before.