In one week Oklahoma farmers will see how much damage spring freezing has done to this year’s winter wheat crop.
All but three counties in the Oklahoma Panhandle were issued a freeze warning, and temperatures hit below 32 degrees until 9 a.m. on Tuesday.
Despite the fact the crop is a couple weeks ahead in its development, Mike Schulte, executive director of Oklahoma Wheat Commission, told Tulsa World that the crops have experienced great stress from the freezing.
“The cold temperatures are probably going to have some effect,” Schulte said Monday. “It’s probably going to have a large impact.”
Jeff Bedwell, an agriculture educator for the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service in Garfield County, said only time will tell what effect the freeze will have in the Enid area.
“It’s really going to be field-to-field-to-field specific,” Jeff Bedwell, an agriculture educator for the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service, said.
The moisture will help plants recover from the freezing compared to if they were in dry ground.
Over the past few years Oklahoma has seen production go up and down in the winter wheat production. IN 2008 166.5 million bushels were harvested according to USDA National Agricultural Statistics. That number is almost twice as much as the 98 million collected in 2007 or 81.6 million in 2006.
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