This Year’s Wheat Crop Could Be the Worst In Oklahoma’s History

• Logan Layden
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  Logan Layden is a reporter and managing editor for StateImpact Oklahoma. He is a native of McAlester, Oklahoma and graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2009. Logan spent three years as a state capitol reporter and local host of All Things Considered for NPR member station KGOU in Norman and six years as a reporter with StateImpact from 2011 to 2017. Most recently, he was news director for McAlester Radio before returning to public radio in 2020.

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Parts of southwest Oklahoma are in their fourth year of drought, and the panhandle isn’t faring much better. Combine that with a late freeze in April, and it could spell the worst wheat harvest in the state’s history.

The Oklahoman‘s Brianna Bailey interviewed a Tillman County farmer who thinks less than 10 percent of this year’s crop will end up being harvested:

In 35 years of farming, Cassidy said this year’s wheat crop is one of the poorest he has ever seen.

“I thought that last year was the worst year. I thought that that was as bad as it could get, until this year,” said Cassidy, who also co-owns a grain elevator with his brother in Frederick.

Joe Neal Hampton, president and CEO of the Oklahoma Grain and Feed Association, told the paper he’s never seen a worse wheat crop in his 43 years of experience.

The Oklahoma Grain and Feed Association projected at its annual meeting Wednesday that Oklahoma’s wheat harvest would be about 66.5 million bushels this year. The estimate is based on reports on crop conditions from farmers around the state. That compares to a yield of 105.4 million bushels in 2013, and a 154.8 million bushels in 2012.