{"id":24193,"date":"2015-06-18T08:29:27","date_gmt":"2015-06-18T13:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=24193"},"modified":"2015-06-18T15:31:01","modified_gmt":"2015-06-18T20:31:01","slug":"drought-breaking-rain-proving-too-much-too-late-for-oklahoma-wheat-farmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2015\/06\/18\/drought-breaking-rain-proving-too-much-too-late-for-oklahoma-wheat-farmers\/","title":{"rendered":"Drought-Breaking Rain Proving Too Much, Too Late for Oklahoma Wheat Farmers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_24194\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24194\" alt=\"A combine crew from South Dakota harvests wheat near Altus in southwest Oklahoma.\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/06\/20150610-wheat-harvest075_WEB.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/06\/20150610-wheat-harvest075_WEB.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/06\/20150610-wheat-harvest075_WEB-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/06\/20150610-wheat-harvest075_WEB-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/06\/20150610-wheat-harvest075_WEB-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Joe Wertz \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A combine crew from South Dakota harvests wheat near Altus in southwest Oklahoma.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>May 2015 was Oklahoma\u2019s wettest month on record. The historic rainfall washed away an economically draining drought that haunted parts of the state for five years. For many wheat farmers in southwestern Oklahoma, however, the record rainfall is too much, too late.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/210845238%3Fsecret_token%3Ds-UayUN&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=false\" height=\"150\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p><p><!--more-->To find a farmer in the wide, unbroken prairie of southwest Oklahoma, scan the horizon and look for clouds \u2014 of dust. In a field five miles south of Altus, Fred Schmedt peers through the haze and watches a gray-and-black combine pull alongside a tractor with a grain cart.<\/p><p>Schmedt grins as the bin fills.<\/p><p>\u201cWe\u2019re really tickled to death,\u201d he says.<\/p><p>That\u2019s because the test weight of the Ruby Lee wheat harvested in the field is coming in at 61.7 pounds per bushel \u2014 great news for Schmedt\u2019s bottom line.<\/p><p>Last year, the family-run farm had fields that yielded fewer than 8 pounds per bushel. Statewide, Oklahoma wheat farmers averaged 17 pounds per bushel in 2014, data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show \u2014 the result of one of the state\u2019s worst harvests on record.<\/p><p>\u201cThis is the best field of wheat we\u2019ve cut so far,\u201d Schmedt says.<\/p><p>The bad news: The harvests at the Schmedt family\u2019s other fields haven\u2019t been this good. Slow-moving storms and favorable climate patterns <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCYQFjAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fstateimpact.npr.org%2Foklahoma%2F2015%2F05%2F14%2Frains-help-quench-oklahomas-drought-but-officials-warn-dry-days-could-return%2F&ei=F-OBVaiDOYrCsAW7q4OoBA&usg=AFQjCNHq9zfEXYKqvi0Jf3s8ESNp3ctNtQ&sig2=S0HxdOrbi7ISecZzelDE-w\">dumped record amounts of rainfall<\/a> across Oklahoma in April and May. The rain broke the drought, but it came too late for many wheat farmers.<\/p><p>\u201cIt would have been much better on the wheat crop if it would have come a month earlier,\u201d he says. \u201cBut, here again, we\u2019re glad to get what we got.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_20103\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-20103\" alt=\"Brothers and business partners Fred and Wayne Schmedt stand in their family's wheat field near Altus in southwest Oklahoma.\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2014\/05\/20140515-swok-drought193_WEB.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2014\/05\/20140515-swok-drought193_WEB.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2014\/05\/20140515-swok-drought193_WEB-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2014\/05\/20140515-swok-drought193_WEB-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2014\/05\/20140515-swok-drought193_WEB-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Joe Wertz \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brothers and business partners Fred and Wayne Schmedt stand in their family&#39;s wheat field near Altus in southwest Oklahoma.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Hard harvest<\/h3><p>StateImpact interviewed Schmedt <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2014\/05\/22\/oklahomas-withered-wheat-harvest-could-have-national-effects\/\">last year<\/a> during that awful 2014 wheat harvest. At the time, Schmedt and his brother and business partner, Wayne, were worried they wouldn\u2019t have a job for their cutter. Craig Wolf has traveled from South Dakota to Oklahoma for decades to help the Schmedt family cut its wheat.<\/p><p>\u201cHe\u2019s cut our families\u2019 wheat since 1973,\u201d Fred Schmedt said in May 2014. \u201cHe sort of needs a job.\u201d<\/p><p>The Schmedts had a job for Wolf again this year. Wolf, in turn, was able to hire four other workers \u2014 two Bulgarians and two South Africans.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_24201\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24201\" alt=\"Craig Wolf, a custom cutter from South Dakota, travels to Oklahoma every year to harvest the Schmedt family's wheat.\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/06\/20150610-wheat-harvest034_WEB.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/06\/20150610-wheat-harvest034_WEB.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/06\/20150610-wheat-harvest034_WEB-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/06\/20150610-wheat-harvest034_WEB-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/06\/20150610-wheat-harvest034_WEB-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Joe Wertz \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Craig Wolf, a custom cutter from South Dakota, travels to Oklahoma every year to harvest the Schmedt family&#39;s wheat.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>\u201cThey\u2019re pretty good guys,\u201d says Wolf from the driver\u2019s seat of his Gleaner S7 combine. \u201cThey\u2019re doing good.\u201d<\/p><p>The cab of the combine is air-conditioned and comfy, which seems strange because we\u2019re only a few feet and a piece of glass away from a terrifying, whirling blade. This machine is operated with a joystick and a flat-screen and guided by satellites.<\/p><p>Wolf thinks this year\u2019s wheat harvest will be better than last year\u2019s, but the weather that broke Oklahoma\u2019s drought did a lot of damage. \u201cA blessing and a curse,\u201d says Schmedt, who lost many fields to hail damage. \u201cOthers were too soggy for combines and other heavy harvesting equipment.&#8221;<\/p><p>\u201cThe rains came; they came a little late. It was more or less a salvage operation,\u201d says Jeff Edwards, a small grains extension specialist at Oklahoma State University.<\/p><p>This year, Oklahoma\u2019s wheat crop was ready before the fields were dry, Edwards says. Soggy, unharvested fields can mean rotting wheat, rampant weeds and early sprouting \u2014 problems that cost money and time, and result in lower yields, he says.<\/p><p>\u201cIt\u2019s better than last year, but it\u2019s not going to go down as what we\u2019d term a \u2018good year,\u2019\u201d Edwards says.<\/p><p>Wheat is Oklahoma\u2019s No. 1 cash crop. In one of those \u201cgood years,\u201d the state\u2019s crop is valued at $650 million. A good year also means 140 million bushels statewide. In 2014, Oklahoma harvested about one-third of that \u2014 47 million bushels, USDA data show. Edwards is hoping for 100 million bushels this year.<\/p>\n<h3>Field flexibility<\/h3><p>Fred Schmedt hopes that next year, the rain will start in February instead of April. But, like other Oklahoma farmers, he\u2019s adapting. This field is about to change.<\/p><p>\u201cThis afternoon it will be planted back to cotton,\u201d he says.<\/p><p>The timing of this year\u2019s historic rains weren\u2019t ideal for wheat, but this field is irrigated. The once-dried-up ponds, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=newssearch&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB4QqQIoADAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tulsaworld.com%2Fnews%2Fweather%2Foklahoma-s-reservoirs-doing-some-heavy-lifting-with-more-rain%2Farticle_72ce0104-4c46-52b9-85b2-8222109f54a1.html&ei=tOKBVaGeM4GLsQX06IAg&usg=AFQjCNFvEnOCuOwl_W0xAkyTKOHYsHh3Rg&sig2=TMIBKrr0gfZCLlf7uBkCAA\">lakes and reservoirs<\/a> are full. That means at least some Oklahoma farmers can turn on the tap instead of waiting on the weather.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>May 2015 was Oklahoma\u2019s wettest month on record. The historic rainfall washed away an economically draining drought that haunted parts of the state for five years. For many wheat farmers in southwestern Oklahoma, however, the record rainfall is too much, too late.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":24194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[491],"tags":[313,423,422],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24193"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24193"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24200,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24193\/revisions\/24200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}