Lingering Damage from Fall Drought in Hard Red Winter Wheat

January 3, 2012

Wheat in West Texas and SW Kansas may not recover from severe fall drought,  while conditions continue to improve elsewhere in hard red winter wheat with increased field moisture.

Hard red winter wheat in the Southern Great Plains is on the upswing with improved field moisture in November-December.   Rainfall and smowmelt was well above normal in the top 3 top hard red winter wheat states Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

Oklahoma wheat has steadily improved with generous winter ranfall.   Wheat growth appears near to above normal on a mid December satellite vegetation image in the number 2 rated US winter wheat state:

Sub-par growth was evident in West Texas and southwest Kansas, winter wheat areas that received "much below normal" rainfall August through October.   Wheat yields are expected to be below normal from sparse plant populations, weak roots, and retarded growth.   One advantage of winter wheat, planted in the fall, is an established root system that gives the crop a headstart on development in the spring.  

Sub-par vegetation in the Southwest Great Plains coincides with extremely dry planting conditions August-October.   Rainfall was compared to a 117-year mean,  found to be among the driest on record:

Oklahoma wheat has steadily improved with generous rainfall the past few weeks, the US  second leading winter wheatstate.   Temperatures were sufficiently warm for wheat development.  Clinton is located in western Oklahoma:

Dodge City in southwest Kansas still is struggling with drought,  despite increasing rainfall recently.  Precipitation was  just  62% of normal in the 4 months ending December 30.   Southwest Kansas is one of the top producing districts for hard red winter wheat.