One minute Dallas Geis was "swinging for the fence," applying foliar feed fertilizer, fungicides, pulling every lever to maximize his wheat yield potential on what looked to be a bumper wheat crop.
The next moment the Chattanooga, Okla., producer found himself at a standstill, surveying his crop following a mid-April freeze, wondering about the outcome.
"We were set up for another bumper crop this year," Geis says. "It had been perfect weather, rainfall, everything."
(Rexane and Dallas Geis. Photo by Stacy Pearce Photography.)
Then a cold snap hit April 15. "I thought we had dodged it. I got up early in the morning, and the mesonet temperatures never got below 30 degrees. I thought, maybe, just maybe, we dodged the bullet. I went out five days after the freeze, and there were still some berries in the heads, so I still thought we're going to be okay."
But after 10 days, it was apparent that was not the case. "It's amazing how a few hours can change your trajectory."
(What could have been: an 80-plus bushel wheat head, says Geis. Photo by Dallas Geis.)
On April 25, Geis called his adjuster. "There's no grain in the heads. We went from about 1,800 acres down to about 300 to harvest.
"I talked to some people who are going to have some wheat to harvest, whether it's because they planted it late or they grazed it real hard, they have some potential of making a crop. But everything that was on schedule and in good shape, there's just nothing out there."
According to the Oklahoma Mesonet website, temperatures dropped into the 20s as far south as the Red River with light snow falling across the western half of the state during the cold spell. The site reported on April 15, Kenton, which had the state's lowest reading, dropped to 19 degrees. Hours below freezing ranged from 92 at Boise City (in the Oklahoma Panhandle) to about an hour at many locations across the southeast.
Lynn Geis, Dallas' 75-year-old father who also farms, told Dallas, "I've seen missing grains. I've seen half heads, but I've never seen it to where there was nothing in the wheat head.
"It's ugly this year for wheat production in Western Oklahoma," Geis adds.
Freeze Damage
Geis's crop adjuster Sherry Reynolds, Diversified Crop Insurance, Vernon, Texas, said the damage from this freeze is not typical.
"The surprise is you can't always tell what the damage is. You walk out in the field, and you may have no heads, or you may have 50% damage," she says. "Even in the middle of last week, I had fields that were iffy. I couldn't tell what they were going to do. They were still green, and the berries were still forming."
Often, freeze damage will begin to show up 10 to 14 days after an event, but with this incident, Reynolds says she's finding 14 days is more telling.
Oklahoma State University Tillman County Extension Director Aaron Henson says in his 18 years he hasn't seen freeze damage this odd. "Some of this wheat was just starting to pollinate. For certain fields, it was the worst two or three hours of cold temperatures you could have had," Henson says. "It basically froze the anthers which won't allow it to pollinate and produce a grain in that seed head."
A seed head holds about 60 grains. "In some fields, it pollinated some of those and in others none and in others, all of them. There's just not a blanket answer for every field."
(Damaged, partially filling wheat head in Dallas Geis's field. Photo by Dallas Geis.)
Even neighboring fields separated by a dirt road had different results. "One of the fields I looked at had the worst damage I've seen, about 85% damage. Then right across the road, it was hard to find any damage at all. He'll probably make 60 bushels."
Another example is a wheat field located in a creek bottom that received little freeze damage. "You get on top of the hill, the higher elevation, 50% to 70% damage," Henson says. "It's backward. It ought to be colder at the lower elevation, at the creek bottom, than it is on top.
"But the difference is that the bottom area had already pollinated itself, so it was safe from the cold temperatures. The other one had just started pollinating. It was just good luck on some and bad luck on others. I don't know how else to explain it."
And as luck would have it, Geis's wheat had already pollinated. "That's the frustrating thing, we were done pollinating. The anthers had dropped off the previous week."
Making the call
As Geis realized the extent of his damage, he contacted his local co-op manager. "We had 30,000 bushels contracted and won't be able to deliver a single grain," he says.
He also called his custom harvester, Gary Degen, who's been harvesting for the Geis family, first for Lynn then for Dallas, since 1994. "A month ago, I told our crew out of Minnesota to bring everything they had," Geis recalls. "I called Gary last week and told him it wasn't going to be worth his trouble to come."
Degen, who's been in the custom harvest business for the last 40 years, says they've seen a lot over the years. "We've seen a few droughts, a few frosts in the past, but never in southern Oklahoma have we had a frost take a crop from us."
Degen, his wife Judy, their sons and grandsons custom harvest about 15,000 acres a year. So far, of their customers, the Chattanooga wheat is their only dramatic reduction in harvestable acres.
"We've got a job in northern Oklahoma, and they thought that one would be okay. They didn't think they got cold enough long enough. And the wheat in northern Oklahoma wasn't as far along as the Chattanooga area," Degen says. "Then we've got the Panhandle of Texas, and I just got a call from a customer, and he thinks everything is going to be okay. The crop there wasn't as mature, so the freeze didn't hurt it as much.
"And then we've got work in northwest Kansas. They got down to 11 degrees, but again, because they are further north, it was not in a vulnerable stage. So, they think it will be okay."
Questions
Geis's failed wheat crop leaves more questions than answers. "It's left a lot of people scratching their heads, wondering where the wheat seed is going to come from to plant this fall."
But it's also left the decision of what to do next. In his region, Geis says they are limited to about three production options: wheat, cotton and cattle. "We'll plant more cotton than we planned. It's not an ideal situation."
See, 5 tips for planting cotton into failed wheat crop
And to add insult to injury, Geis says, it's hard to get excited about 55-cent cotton.
"Of the three commodities we can produce, you hope one will hit and carry the other enterprises. The wheat crop was shaping up to do just that."
But Geis, married to Rexane, and the father of three says, "We are going to trust our needs will be met. We are in challenging times in agriculture, but I believe if we maintain a proper perspective and keep our priorities straight, we'll get through this."
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