Last week’s rain may have been just a month too late to save the winter wheat crop.
One DTN analyst says if the Southern Plains would have received precipitation in late March, early April, it could have been called a billion dollar rain. The report shows if all of the winter wheat acres in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas would have received enough rain to boost yields by 18 bushels per acre, the economic value would have come in at 350 million bushels, which is more than $2 billion.
USDA‘s latest crop progress report has 42 percent of the winter wheat crop in the bottom category.
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The lower outlook follows months of drought stress across major winter wheat regions, where some producers have abandoned fields or shifted acres to grazing instead of harvest.
Mike Schulte with the Oklahoma Wheat Commission joins us to discuss drought stress in the Great Plains and the current outlook for Oklahoma’s winter wheat crop.
This case could influence how much leverage grain shippers have when a preferred rail outlet is blocked or priced too high.
Flour milling demand stayed generally steady, but total wheat grind remained slightly softer year over year.
