Little winter wheat for grazing this year

The reason lies at the feet of Mother Nature. Excessive rainfall, which created a dismal harvest of grain in 2007, also meant a dismal harvest of seed.

“Seed that usually sells for $10 per acre is bringing about $20 per acre,” said Kim Anderson, Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service grain marketing specialist. “In addition to being very expensive, it’s not necessarily the best variety of wheat seed. That means the wheat could be more susceptible to weather, disease and insect trouble.”

Anderson said that planted acres this fall are well behind the 5-year average.

“There appear to be two reasons for that,” Anderson said. “One, it’s been too dry to plant in some areas, so producers are reluctant to dust in the seed, hoping for adequate rainfall. There’s risk you might not get the rain or you might get an extremely heavy rain that will make the ground crust over as it dries. In either event, the wheat won’t come up so many producers, afraid they won’t be able to get replacement seed, aren’t willing to take the risk and are waiting for better planting conditions.”

Anderson said the second reason is that high cattle prices have led some producers to forego cattle grazing programs this year.

“You usually plant wheat in August and September so you can get wheat pasture,” he said. “But if you want just a grain crop, it’s better to plant in October.”

Still, there remain financial incentives to graze cattle.

Even with wheat prices high because of the relative scarcity of crops, high feedgrain prices caused by increased demand for ethanol makes stocker budgets look good, said Derrell Peel, OSU Cooperative Extension livestock marketing specialist.

“The cattle market side is begging folks to graze but the bigger part of the winter stocker equation this year is the wheat side, specifically production and risk,” Peel said. “You may give up four to five bushels of grain per acre when you winter graze wheat. With wheat prices in the $6 to $8 per bushel range, that’s a significant amount of money to lose per acre.”

There are other factors as well. If a producer chooses not to graze cattle, he or she will not need to apply as much fertilizer, which is higher priced this year, nor will the producer have the extra fuel expense, which is also higher priced this year, to apply that fertilizer.

“To cut input costs and reduce risk, many producers just aren’t looking to graze cattle this year,” Peel said. “It’s not because the cattle grazing budgets don’t look good, they just don’t look good enough to offset the planting and production risks.”

Anderson added that another concern for wheat producers this year is volunteer wheat.

“The weather has not been right to allow folks to control volunteer stands,” Anderson said. “In some instances, volunteer wheat might be thick enough that it could be used for grazing but volunteer wheat may carry disease and insect problems. All-in-all, it’s going to be another decision-filled fall for wheat producers.”

In southwestern Oklahoma, wheat producers also have been faced with heavy insect pressure.

“Some fields in our area need to be replanted because of insects,” said Mark Gregory, OSU Cooperative Extension area agronomy specialist. “There aren’t a lot of fields needing replanting because not many were planted to begin with, but some did get eaten, especially by fall armyworms, as well as by some grasshoppers.”

Gregory said that pressure from insects led many producers to hold off planting.

“They’re afraid they won’t be able to get seed to replant,” Gregory said. ““To show how bad the insect pressure has been, I’ve even had one report of crickets eating the wheat as it emerged.”

A similar situation with insect pressure is being seen in northwestern Oklahoma.

“We’ve just identified a small, black, hard-shelled flea beetle that looks almost like an aphid,” said Roger Gribble, OSU Cooperative Extension area agronomy specialist. “We’ve found them from the edge up to 50-feet inside the field.”

The insects scratch the leaf epidermal layer and leave holes in the leaf.

“That’s killing seedling wheat,” Gribble said. “It’s an insect pest that we rarely see but it’s just been confirmed near Alva.”

###

REPORTER/MEDIA CONTACT:
Ron Dahlgren
Agricultural Communications Services
144 Agriculture North
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, OK  74078
Phone: 405-744-3737
Fax: 405-744-5739
E-Mail: ron.dahlgren@okstate.edu

Oklahoma State University, U. S. Department of Agriculture, State and Local governments cooperating.  Oklahoma State University in compliance with Title VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Executive Order 11246 as amended, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and other federal and state laws and regulations, does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, age, religion, disability, or status as a veteran in any of its policies, practices, or procedures, and is an equal opportunity employer.