Farm Progress

Wheat harvest underway

After no winter and spring moisture, yields not great but surprising

Shelley E. Huguley, Editor

June 13, 2018

12 Slides

Dryland wheat harvest is underway on the Texas South Plains. While yields and test weights aren't what Lamb County producer Tullie Struve had hoped for due to the drought, he says he's surprised how much wheat is out there to harvest. "It's not as bad as I thought it would be, as dry as our winter and spring were."

According to the USDA NASS May crop report, Texas wheat production is expected to be a little over 43 million bushels, down 37 percent from 2017. Yield per acre is expected to average 27 bushels with harvested acreage for grain at 1.6 million acres, down 32 percent from the previous year. Production for Oklahoma is forecast at 52 million bushels, down 47 percent from 2017. Yield per acre is expected to average 26 bushels with 2 million acres expected to be harvested for grain. 

See Less quantity is credited for better quality in Texas South Plains wheat.

About the Author

Shelley E. Huguley

Editor, Southwest Farm Press

Shelley Huguley has been involved in agriculture for the last 25 years. She began her career in agricultural communications at the Texas Forest Service West Texas Nursery in Lubbock, where she developed and produced the Windbreak Quarterly, a newspaper about windbreak trees and their benefit to wildlife, production agriculture and livestock operations. While with the Forest Service she also served as an information officer and team leader on fires during the 1998 fire season and later produced the Firebrands newsletter that was distributed quarterly throughout Texas to Volunteer Fire Departments. Her most personal involvement in agriculture also came in 1998, when she married the love of her life and cotton farmer Preston Huguley of Olton, Texas. As a farmwife, she knows first-hand the ups and downs of farming, the endless decisions made each season based on “if” it rains, “if” the drought continues, “if” the market holds. She is the bookkeeper for their family farming operation and cherishes moments on the farm such as taking harvest meals to the field or starting a sprinkler in the summer with the whole family lending a hand. Shelley has also freelanced for agricultural companies such as Olton CO-OP Gin, producing the newsletter Cotton Connections while also designing marketing materials to promote the gin. She has published articles in agricultural publications such as Southwest Farm Press while also volunteering her marketing and writing skills to non-profit organizations such as Refuge Services, an equine-assisted therapy group in Lubbock. She and her husband reside in Olton with their three children Breely, Brennon and HalleeKate.

Subscribe to receive top agriculture news
Be informed daily with these free e-newsletters

You May Also Like