Crop tour projects Oklahoma winter wheat crop at 101.169 million bushels

By Julie Ingwersen

CHICAGO, May 6 (Reuters) - A group of Oklahoma crop experts on Tuesday projected Oklahoma's 2025 winter wheat harvest at 101.169 million bushels, with an average yield of 35.9 bushels per acre, following an annual tour of the state, said Mike Schulte, executive director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission.

The estimates were based on field assessments conducted by Oklahoma State University Extension educators as well as private crop consultants and area agronomists, said Schulte.

However, the average wheat production estimate among members surveyed at a meeting of the Oklahoma Grain & Feed Association, where the tour numbers were released, was higher at 103.336 million bushels, with a yield of 37.2 bpa.

By either measure, production in the third-largest winter wheat state by acreage would be down from Oklahoma's 2024 harvest of 108.3 million bushels, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Farmers in Oklahoma planted 5% fewer acres to winter wheat for 2025 than they did a year earlier, the USDA reported in March. The USDA is scheduled to release its first production forecasts of the U.S. 2025 winter wheat harvest on Monday, May 12.

Following a dry winter, Oklahoma had its wettest April on record, according to the Oklahoma Mesonet weather network, causing floods in some winter wheat fields while bringing beneficial moisture elsewhere.

"We're extremely wet right now," Schulte said. "Given all the rain, there is some concern that we have lost some acres," he said. However, he added, the rain also probably saved drought-hit wheat in southern portions of the state.

"It's important to note that we weren't going to have a crop probably at all (in some areas), had we not received the moisture," Schulte said.

Oklahoma's wheat harvest will likely begin in southwestern areas of the state around June 1, Schulte said.

The Oklahoma Wheat Commission's forecast precedes an annual industry tour of fields in top producer Kansas, set for next week.

Most-active K.C. July winter wheat futures KWv1 on the Chicago Board of Trade fell to $5.25 a bushel last week, the lowest since October 2020, before firming slightly this week.