It was too nice of a day to stay in the office yesterday, so I checked on our wheat variety plots. I started at McLoud, moved west to Kingfisher, and ended up at Marshall. As indicated by the pictures and captions below, neither the wheat nor my mood improved as I traveled west. I am sure if I had traveled farther west, this would have gotten worse. The bottom line is that we are in desperate need of moisture in Oklahoma. Early-sown wheat is backpedaling quickly and cannot hold on too much longer. Much of the later sown wheat has yet to emerge. We are certainly not on our way to a record year, but everything could still turn out okay……..if it rains.
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- Wheat at McLoud, OK on 11/20/2012 with three large tillers and three additional tillers initiated. This wheat is on its way to top yield potential.
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- This field north of Kingfisher on Hwy. 81 was likely sown around October 20, but never received enough moisture for complete emergence. The seed is still viable, but even if it rains now the effective planting date would be late November
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- This is September-sown wheat at the Wheat Pasture Research Unit near Marshall, OK. With adequate moisture this wheat would likely have 8 – 10 healthy tillers by today. Due to the drought, it has three small tillers that are barely hanging on.
WORLD OF WHEAT 
Good stuff, Jeff!
To paraphrase the old Atlanta Journal motto, “covers Dixie like the dew”, Edwards covers wheat right on beat. Keep us posted!
The Billings area looks about the same with late Oct and Nov planted wheat only partially up. Earlier plantings are showing signs of stress, conventionally tilled fields more so than notill, but none will make it without rain.
Yes, it is dry out here. Just planted my conventional tilled ground this week.