Wheat crops looking good for farmers despite the wet spring

Approximately 8,300 acres of wheat are planted in Poinsett County alone with an estimated yield of around 345,000 bushels.

Farmers can be seen everywhere cutting the winter wheat and burning off the fields, which happen to be a little behind schedule due to all the rain this season. According to the Cooperative Extension Service officials, bumper crops are being recorded and overall state's crops are looking good.

Winter wheat is an important cash grain crop in Arkansas and the South. Winter soft wheat is versatile to multiple-cropping system and can obtain high grain and forage yields under dry land conditions. Wheat is the most important winter grain crop in the southern United States and is typically grown in a double crop system with soybean.

State average wheat yields have gradually increased over the past 20 years from about 40 to 45 bushels per acre to 50 to 55 bushels per acre. However, a difference exists between the state average yields and the yields attained by top producers, who often reach more than 80 bushels per acre. The potential for greatly increasing production of winter wheat exists, but better use of management technologies is needed to realize this potential.

"I've heard of some 80 bushel yields," said Craig Allen, Poinsett County Extension Agent. "Mostly reports are in the 60's and 70's which is very surprising for the wet spring we had."

Officials said wheat prices were in the $7 range in May. As of Friday June 20, the AR Daily Grain updated report stated that No. 2 soft red wheat prices were Blytheville $6.43 a bushel, Osceola $6.44 and West Memphis $6.57.

"The farmers need good yields with basis being around $2 a bushel," Allen said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that AR has 840,000 acres of winter wheat planted which is projected to turn out 47 million bushels. Growers are expected to bring an average of 56 bushels an acre. Last year Arkansas averaged 41 bushels per acre.

According to The AgriWorks for Arkansas (University of AR Division of Agriculture), approximately 8,300 acres of wheat are planted in Poinsett County alone with an estimated yield of around 345,000 bushels.

Over 1.82 billion bushels of wheat are expected nationally which is up about 20% from last year. This is wonderful considering the wet spring and the increase of fuel and fertilizer.