The Kansas hard red winter wheat crop took a hard hit last night, with a strong likelihood that by the end of the week the crop could see significant damage from one or more additional nights of temperatures at or below freezing.

Compounding the harm is the fact that the topsoil is relatively dry — a condition that increases the chance of a freeze wiping out the growing point.

On Monday night, the temperature in south-central and central Kansas dropped into the 20s. Temperatures as far south as Oklahoma City were near the freezing mark.

“We saw some damage from the freeze a couple of weeks ago,” according to Romulo Lollato, Kansas State University wheat specialist. “But the good thing back then was the crop was not very mature. We had some pretty cool weather in March, and it slowed down development. So, when it hit 16 degrees in northwest Kansas in early April, there was not a lot of damage. Even in south-central Kansas where the crop was further along, it could still handle the low 20s without significant problems.”

But two weeks later is a different story. According to Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service, the crop was 34% jointed as of April 13. But the data for that report was collected several days ago, so the total of wheat jointed at the time of the hard freeze was higher.

“The crop in south-central Kansas is almost to flag leaf emergence, and most of the crop in central Kansas is jointed,” Lollato says. “This last freeze could have done a lot of damage. And worse still, the forecast for more freezing temperatures is going to do nothing but make it worse.”

In the northwest, the temperature hit 16 degrees F on Monday night, and much of the crop is well developed enough to be hurt by that kind of cold, he says.

Damage check

Lollato says it will be a week to 10 days before the full extent of the damage will be apparent — a timeframe that would have made the Hard Red Winter Quality Tour the first week of May a good chance to get an assessment. The tour, like many other activities and events, was canceled as a part of the effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Lollato says he would be looking at some fields over the next couple of weeks and offering some idea of the toll the freezes have taken.

“If new leaves emerging look yellow, then that tiller is probably gone,” he says. “If there are green new leaves, then that tiller is probably alive. The most advanced fields will feel the damage the most. What survives and what doesn’t will depend a lot on planting date, variety and tillage practice. No-till fields are often planted after fall harvest and may be a little better off.

“Producers who want to check on damage can pull a plant and use a pocketknife to split the stem and locate the growing point. If the growing point is green and crispy, that’s good. If it is mushy and whitish looking, that’s not so good.”

The ability of the crop to recover will depend on what kind of weather the state sees over the next two to three weeks, Lollato says. If the next couple of weeks are wet and cool, but well above freezing, there’s a good chance that the secondary and tertiary tillers that were less mature and more likely to escape damage will grow and maybe even put out more tillers. If the weather turns dry and hot, then there is less chance that the loss of a primary tiller can be overcome and less chance that secondary tillers will strengthen.

“In the southern-most counties right at the Oklahoma border, we could see some pretty serious losses,” Lollato says. “There will likely be farmers who will have to decide if they need to call the insurance adjuster and decide on a replacing wheat with a summer crop. But there will still be time for that when we get a good assessment in a couple of weeks.”

Kansas farmers planted about 6.8 million acres of wheat last fall, down from 7.2 million acres in 2018.