{"id":26715,"date":"2016-06-09T11:31:32","date_gmt":"2016-06-09T16:31:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=26715"},"modified":"2016-06-20T14:57:52","modified_gmt":"2016-06-20T19:57:52","slug":"oklahoma-farmers-wrap-up-rain-delayed-wheat-harvest-as-drought-hints-at-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2016\/06\/09\/oklahoma-farmers-wrap-up-rain-delayed-wheat-harvest-as-drought-hints-at-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma Farmers Wrap Up Rain-Delayed Wheat Harvest as Drought Hints at Return"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_26716\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-26716\" alt=\"Wheat farmer Fred Schmedt stands in one of his family's fields south of Altus, Okla.\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/06\/20160606-wheat-harvest092_WEB.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/06\/20160606-wheat-harvest092_WEB.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/06\/20160606-wheat-harvest092_WEB-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/06\/20160606-wheat-harvest092_WEB-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/06\/20160606-wheat-harvest092_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\">Wheat farmer Fred Schmedt stands in one of his family&#39;s fields south of Altus, Okla.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>Heavy rains delayed the 2016 wheat harvest in Oklahoma, but the yield could be better than recent years. Many farmers, however, are still making up losses from a drought that climatologists warn could be returning.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/268315918&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-->It\u2019s a hot, dry and relatively windless day south of Altus in southwest Oklahoma. Eight to 11 inches of rain has fallen in the area over the last few weeks, and Fred Schmedt is on his cell phone trying to keep large trucks and tractor-trailers off his field.<\/p><p>Heavy vehicles plus soggy soil equals rock-hard, compacted dirt that won\u2019t grow wheat. The amount of rainfall is crucial for Oklahoma wheat farmers like the Schmedt family, but the timing of the rain is a big factor, too.<\/p><p>\u201cThis crop has gone through a nice condition to start, got too wet, got too dry, and then has finished off way too wet,\u201d Schmedt says.<\/p><p>It\u2019s probably too wet for the team of combines Schmedt is watching as they make passes through one of his fields, but he\u2019s happy there\u2019s actually a wheat crop to harvest.<\/p><p>The forecast calls for a break in the wet weather. And in Oklahoma, you have to make hay \u2014 and wheat \u2014 while the sun shines.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_26718\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-26718\" alt=\"20160606 - wheat harvest077_WEB\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/06\/20160606-wheat-harvest077_WEB.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/06\/20160606-wheat-harvest077_WEB.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/06\/20160606-wheat-harvest077_WEB-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/06\/20160606-wheat-harvest077_WEB-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/06\/20160606-wheat-harvest077_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\">Fred Schmedt examines a handful of wheat kernels. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Combines rolling<\/h3><p>David Marburger, a small grains extension specialist at Oklahoma State University, says farmers around the state have been delayed by soggy fields and rainy weather, but the 2016 harvest is coming along.<\/p><p>\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a lot of combines rolling around, which is really good,\u201d Marburger says in an interview from the field near Walters, Okla., where he was surveying progress.<\/p><p>It\u2019s too early to say for sure, but Marburger is optimistic Oklahoma\u2019s total haul will be better than last year\u2019s.<\/p><p>Back near Altus, Fred Schmedt and his brother Wayne are watching a combine start work on a new section. They\u2019re also keeping a watchful eye out on that tractor-trailer driver they\u2019re trying to keep off the wet field.<\/p><p>\u201cWe want him to park it out here on the pavement,\u201d says Wayne Schmedt. \u201cHopefully we\u2019re successful in our negotiation skills,\u201d he adds, laughing.<\/p><p>Down the road, Wayne squats, grabs a handful of soil and squeezes. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty soft still,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s really way muddier than we would like. We\u2019d normally like that to just crumble.\u201d<\/p><p>StateImpact interviewed the Schmedt brothers in this same field <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2014\/05\/22\/oklahomas-withered-wheat-harvest-could-have-national-effects\/\">two years ago<\/a>, during a drought that wiped out wheat crops statewide.<\/p>\n<h3>Oklahoma, oscillations<\/h3><p>On average, Oklahoma farmers produce about 100 million bushels of wheat a year. In 2014, the total was less than half that: 47.6 million bushels, data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show.<\/p><p>Things improved in 2015 with an annual total of 98.8 million bushels, but, like this year, <a href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2015\/06\/18\/drought-breaking-rain-proving-too-much-too-late-for-oklahoma-wheat-farmers\/\">the rains were too much too late<\/a> for a lot of farmers, like the Schmedts.<\/p><p>Oklahoma\u2019s weather is tied to the temperature of the water in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Climatologists are concerned that those temperature patterns \u2014 apparent in meteorological phenomenon known as the Pacific Decadal and Atlantic Multi-decadal oscillations \u2014 are setting up to <a href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2016\/06\/02\/forecast-calls-for-la-nina-increased-chance-for-drought-in-oklahoma\/\">look a lot like they did in 2010<\/a>, when the most recent drought started.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_26717\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-26717\" alt=\"A combine harvesting a wheat field south of Altus, Okla.\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/06\/20160606-wheat-harvest085_WEB.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/06\/20160606-wheat-harvest085_WEB.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/06\/20160606-wheat-harvest085_WEB-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/06\/20160606-wheat-harvest085_WEB-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/06\/20160606-wheat-harvest085_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 harvesting a wheat field south of Altus, Okla.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3>&#8216;Killer on the field&#8217;<\/h3><p>Fred and Wayne Schmedt cringe as a worker towing a grain cart with a large tractor races across their wet, spongy field.<\/p><p>\u201cKiller on the field, that\u2019s a killer on the field,\u201d says Fred.<\/p><p>If they had to choose, the Schmedts would take flooded pastures over drought. The damage from the heavy vehicles will linger for years, but it\u2019s worth it. That tractor sped by because the combine needed to unload \u2014 again.<\/p><p>\u201cThat\u2019s a good thing!\u201d Wayne says.<\/p><p>The brothers are focused on the wheat harvest, and haven\u2019t paid too much attention to early warnings from scientists about drought on the horizon.<\/p><p>But when this year\u2019s harvest is over, the brothers say they\u2019re going to diversify by planting a field of guar \u2014 a legume that\u2019s very drought-tolerant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Heavy rains delayed the 2016 wheat harvest in Oklahoma, but the yield could be better than recent years. Many farmers, however, are still making up losses from a drought that climatologists warn could be returning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":26719,"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\/26715"}],"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=26715"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26726,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26715\/revisions\/26726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}