Harvest update from Wheat Commission
Mark Hodges of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission sent this update earlier this week, and I followed up on it in a story published this morning.
Read Mark’s update then click on the link to my story for further information:
The 2008 Oklahoma wheat harvest continued over the weekend even as there are virtually no custom cutters left in the state. This means what wheat is left to be harvested is being done by producers with their own combines, neighbors helping neighbors, or those that have leased combines and are doing local custom work.
Even with fewer combines though we are now estimating Oklahoma to be in excess of 75 percent complete with this harvest. Areas still cutting where a significant acres remain to be harvested are along I – 40 (about 70 percent complete), just north of Enid (projected to be 65 percent complete), NE and E of Enid where combines are still having problems staying on top of the ground (MUD) is now projected at 15 percent complete and the Panhandle projected to be 50 percent complete at this point.
The Panhandle area as you move into Beaver County (eastern most county) is winding down with close to 90 percent of this harvest complete , Texas County (center county) is 50 percent complete with harvest and Cimarron County (western most county) is just now getting rolling with this harvest. Yields in the Panhandle are a stark contrast to last year as dryland wheat as you move from Beaver County west is almost none existent with most yield reports being from in the teens to abandonment. Irrigated acres are also a sharp contrast in yields as they are being reported from 50 bushels to the acre and down (normal irrigated yields would be pushing 100 bushels per acre).
Last week the Oklahoma Mesonet was reporting the 365 day precipitation totals (June 18 reference), as ranging in the center Panhandle 6.4 inches to almost 60 inches in the areas of NE Oklahoma we are now trying to get harvested. Over the last 45 days there are some areas in the NE wheat producing areas with wheat yet to be cut that have received over 15 inches of rain.
I followed up on the customer cutter issue, and you can find it here.
Business Writer
The latest on the wheat harvest
Mark Hodges, executive director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission, has been supplying us with harvest updates. This is from Thursday’s update:
Harvest started back up in the western part of the state on Wednesday. Combines were finishing up what was left to cut around Eldorado and Frederick locations with wheat in this area now weighing around 59 to 60 pounds after the Sunday storms. I am now projecting the harvest is 95% complete south of Highway 62 (Walters across to Eldorado).
Little cutting was done on Wednesday in the areas around Hobart, Cordell or Chickasha (Hwy 62 northward to just south of I-40. However, along I-40 north around El Reno, Greenfield and Okarche combines were moving again by late afternoon. Harvest in the north central and northeast part of the state continues to be delayed due to the heavy rains this past week. Producers are hopeful they will be able to get back into the fields by Saturday at the earliest.
Areas from Lahoma to Ponca City received anywhere from 8 to 10 inches of rain this past week. Even if the wheat does dry down, producers will still be fighting mud in the coming days. Harvest is just getting started around the Shattuck and May areas in the Northwest part of the state. Shattuck was taking in wheat that was testing 12.3 moisture and weighing 58.5 to 60 pounds per bushel. A few loads have been taken in around Hooker where moisture was testing anywhere from 13.4 to 19 percent. Test weights in this area have been highly variable, ranging from 50 pounds to 60 pounds per bushel.
Elevator managers around Hooker and Guymon feel like they will be just getting started with harvest coming this weekend. In general, we lost about 2 pounds of test weight around the state with last Sunday’s rain event. Proteins are improving as new areas begin to harvest and the overall average protein in the areas that are winding down are also improving.
Business Reporter
Tracking the slow delivery of harvest railcars
Imagine taking a trip from Oklahoma City to Fort Worth and pulling over to the side of the road for 30 minutes every 20 miles. By the time you arrive in Fort Worth, road rage has probably engulfed you.
That’s similar to what railroads face in bring railcars into Oklahoma up from south Texas, an executive with the Wichita, Tillman and Jackson shortline based in Wichita Falls, Texas, told me. The WTJ, as it is known, brings Union Pacific cars into Oklahoma to service grain elevators along a line that runs through Frederick and on to Altus.
But the trip up from the Gulf on the Union Pacific line can take days because of traffic delays, weather and equipment problems, said Martin Sicalla, WTJ’s general manager.
“They are running trains both directions and somebody has to sit somewhere,” said Sicalla said. “Once train gets to moving from Corpus Christi, everything has to fall in place for it to get here in a decent time.
Sicalla was responding to criticism that empty railcars from the Union Pacific have arrived up to 10 days late, long after graiin elevators have been filled with wheat from what has turned out to be a larger-than-expected Oklaoma wheat harvest in some areas.
Mike Cassidy, president of Cassidy Grain in Frederick, has singled out the WTJ and the Union Pacific for a delay in delivering empty cars until the harvest is all but over in the area. Some,
“We can point the finger all day long and blame everybody,” Sicalla said. “I told him the UP has worked with me very well this year, to be honest with you. They have done an excellent job.”
Answered Cassidy: “My question would be why does nearly every location on his line have wheat on the ground.”
Maybe the real answer was in some comments provided by Union Pacific spokesman Joe Adams, who pointed to the WTJ as the main culprit in the delays. More on this story will be available in Wednesday’s editions of The Oklahoman.
Business News Reporter
Open air grain storage in Frederick, Altus
I rode down to Frederick and Altus on Friday with Mark Hodges of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission because we had heard that farmers were dumping wheat on the ground because of lack of storage.
It was true.
In Frederick there was wheat piled outside the Tillman Producers Cooperative and in Altus at the Planters Co-op Association location there thousands of bushels were lying in open ground outside the grain elevator and next to the railroad tracks.
The problem? Grain elevator operators rely on railroads to provide railcars into which they can load grain and ship it to major grain terminals, which creates more local storage space. That’s key in what appears to be shaping up as a much larger wheat harvest than forecast.
So, elevator operators have run out of space and farmers have no choice but to dump it on the ground if they can’t truck it to elevators down in Texas.
In these photos, Hodges (top photo) poses at the base of the grain pile in Frederick, while Brent Cassidy of Cassidy Grain there stands outside a flat storage facility that was bulging at the sides and spilling grain out of the south doors (top photo below). We tried to get close enough to the large grain pile in Altus, but storm damage prevented us from getting there. Utility poles were down in every direction surrounding the co-op, and we couldn’t get through (bottom photo, below).
Jim Stafford
Business News Reporter
Wheat harvest update: storm aftermath edition
Mark Hodges with the Oklahoma Wheat Commission has tracked both the 2008 wheat harvest and the storm damage caused to northern Oklahoma wheat fields this week.
Here is Mark’s report from Friday morning. The photos above and below were shot by Mark in and around Burlington:
Storms once again pounded Oklahoma on Thursday afternoon and evening not only stopping harvest across the state, but also causing damage, but mainly from mainline winds of 80 to 90 miles per hour with rain. It is surprising some wheat is still standing and we are concerned about shattering in varieties like Overley.
Meanwhile, before the storms arrived the Southern one-third of the state is now 70 percent complete with harvest, the Chickasha to El Reno to Okarche area is now estimated to be 55 percent complete with continued outstanding test weights, the Kingfisher area is about 50 percent complete, and the area from Watonga up to Alva is now showing to be 20 percent completed. There has still been very little wheat cut east of a line from Alva to Dacoma to Hennessey.
It still is remains to be seen how much damage last nights storm did to this crop…something we hope to have assessed by Monday.
Jim Stafford
Business News Reporter
Harvest Update
Mark Hodges, executive director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission, provided the following update on the status of the state’s wheat harvest, which is well under way.
Here is Mark’s report, filed Tuesday morning:
The 2008 Oklahoma wheat harvest continues to roll with 100 degree plus temperatures and lots of wind. Test weights continue to be good (almost all above 60lbs/bu.) with an average in most locations around 62lbs/bu. Wheat producers have been generally pleased with yields and the only real problems with harvest being severe weather in isolated areas and the availability of rail cars.
We are now cutting wheat as far north as Fairview (about 50 miles south of the Kansas border), with expectations of test cutting starting in the Oklahoma Panhandle in the next couple of days (the Panhandle area had extremely dry conditions, so this early harvest date for them is related to drought induced early maturity).
Very little quality information is available at this point, but protein has varied by location and we are currently awaiting test results of other quality parameters in this year’s crop.
Estimated harvest completion: South of Hwy. 62, 40%; I-40 South to Hwy. 62, 20%; the remainder of the state is just now getting started.
Jim Stafford
Business News Reporter
Harvest insights
On a tour of wheat producing areas of southwestern Oklahoma last week, the folks at the Walters Co-op Elevator Association gave me perhaps the best glimpse of how wheat gets delivered and shipped on down the line for ultimate consumption by consumers. Here are pictures:
Chris Abbott waits while his truck is weighed at the Walters elevator. Trucks are weighed before and after their grain is dumped to get an accurate assessment of how much wheat is delivered.
The grain is dumped from the truck through vents in the floor of the elevator, from where it is carried by a conveyor belt to the top of the bin and dropped in.
A worker sweeps in leftover grain from the previous delivery into the vents before the next truckload arrives.
Wheat is loaded into another semi-trailer at the Ahpeatone elevator, from where it will be trucked down to a grain terminal near Fort Worth, Texas.
Walters co-op manager Jerry Krasser and his crew work until well after midnight most nights during the harvest, then start it all over in the morning. But it’s all over in a couple of weeks.
Business News Reporter
The Road to the Harvest continues…
Our trip deep into southwestern Oklahoma last week concluded with a visit at dusk to Lone Wolf and Planters Cooperative Association manager Kenny Hahn. The Lone Wolf stop was the last in a trip that covered more than 400 miles and included visits to grain elevators and customer haervesters in Apache, Walters, Frederick and Eldorado.
Bottom line: At least in southwestern Oklahoma, the wheat harvest appears to be much better than the 149 million bushel forecast by USDA statisticians.
What I learned from the trip: Rail service plays a much larger and vital role in the shipment of wheat out of Oklahoma than I realized. Many elevators are serviced by the so-called “short-line” railroads that connect to the major lines such as BNSF.
In the top photo, workers load a grain care at dusk at the Lone Wolf co-op. Bottom photo: Cassidy Grain employee Joe Martinez stands on a catwalk above a railcar as he loads wheat into it at the Frederick grain elevator.
Business News Reporter
On the Road to the Wheat Harvest 4
Life on a customer harvest crew is a lot of “hurry up and wait,” said Brady Cooper of Ponca City, who operates a harvesting crew with fellow Ponca City resident Don Schieber.
Cooper and Schieber had their crews in a 250-acre field west of Walters on Thursday morning, but there was little activity until 1:30 p.m. It was overcast all morning, which meant the moisture levels in the wheat heads were too high to harvest. Then Schieber discovered that a belt needed to be replaced in a combine. He drove to Burkburnett, Texas, to buy a new one. Cost: $152.
The six-man crew enjoyed lunch of hot pizza brought in by one of their co-workers during the noon hour.
Finally, a test cut at about 1 p.m. The moisture content came back at 14.2 percent, a little on the high end. By 1:30, they fired up the three combines and commenced cutting.
For more on the life of a custom harvest crew, see Sunday’s Business Section of The Oklahoman.
Jim Stafford
Business News Writer
On the Road to the Wheat Harvest 3
There was gridlock at the Ahpeatone grain elevator of Walters Cooperative Elevator last night. More than 30 trucks with sem-trailers full of wheat waited hours to unload their grain.
Some drivers were more patient than others, said elevator employee Jeff Robinson.
“Our biggest challenge was keeping tempers in check,” Robinson said of the traffic jam that began on the elevator’s grounds and spilled out both ways on the highways.
Eventually, everyone did got to deliver their wheat, but the work day did not end for the Ahpeatone elevator crew until after 1 a.m.
By 1:30 p.m. this afternoon, a line of 10 trucks waited out on the highway for their turn to deliver as the whole process started once again.
Jim Stafford
Business News Reporter
