Late freeze leaves winter wheat in doubt

Saturday, May 26, 2007

CHAMPAIGN (AP) - Winter wheat farmers across the Midwest aren't sure just what they'll get when they start their combines and begin the spring harvest in a few weeks.

An early April freeze turned what had been vibrant, green carpets emerging in fields weak and yellow in many areas, from Illinois to Kansas and as far south as Arkansas. Illinois and the other areas most affected by the April cold grow soft red winter wheat, used for pasta, crackers and cookies, but not bread.

Some farmers plowed their fields under, judging the crop a near total loss.

Estimates of statewide yield might be 50 bushels an acre, well below the 67-bushel-per-acre average in 2006.

But many of those who didn't face the likelihood of a mediocre harvest, University of Illinois crop-production specialist Emerson Nafziger said.

Fields he checked this week in southwestern Illinois, the state's main wheat-growing area, looked better than they did a few weeks ago, Nafziger said, but "it's clearly been beaten up. I don't think we're looking at any bin-busting yields."

Reichert hopes his wheat will yield 75 bushels an acre - considerably less than his fields have produced in recent years, but he'd take it.

Yields aren't the only concern, though. Nafziger said the weakened crop is open to more disease problems. He worries in particular about a fungus called scab that makes kernels shrivel and can produce a toxin that's poisonous to people and animals.

"Usually scab infestation in wheat will often lead to it being discounted, and sometimes millers won't take it," Nafziger said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that only 38 percent of Illinois' 970,000-acre crop is in good to excellent condition. A year ago that figure was 86 percent.

In Kansas, the country's top winter wheat producer, 40 percent of the almost 9.6 million-acre crop is in good to excellent condition. In Arkansas, only 16 percent of the 800,000-acre crop is rated good or excellent.

The Easter freeze, as Nafziger and others now call the cold blast, came weeks after the winter wheat crop began to grow. Winter wheat is planted late in the year, then emerges in late winter or early spring as weather warms.

Temperatures in southwestern Illinois were in the mid-20s for much of the first week in April, about 20 degrees below normal, said meteorologist Chris Miller of the National Weather Service in Lincoln, Ill.

Bob Buntin, who farms near Akin, Ill., about 70 miles southeast of St. Louis, says the deep freeze cost him all but 50 of his 1,400 acres of wheat. What's left is somewhat of a test case to see if it produces seeds he can use next planting.

The extent of the area's damage, the 67-year-old said, has shocked even the old-timers.

"There are a lot of men older than me around here, and they say they've never seen anything like this."