Dry winter weather conditions could cause some economic concern for this years wheat production.

The Texas Panhandle is the largest wheat producing region in the state of Texas.

Wheat in our area is used not only for grain and food items, the forage in wheat is harvested for cattle grazing.

Experts say dry winter weather from previous years combined with this year are causing the crop to lack deep soil moisture.

“So even when we did receive a little bit of rain in the fall, many of those fields didn’t have any deep moisture and so when they were actively growing in the fall they simply ran out of moisture and some of those fields died,” said Research and Extension Agronomist, Jourdan Bell.

Bell says that the last few years of a reduced wheat crop have shown a broad economic impact in our area.

In past similar conditions, the price of forage used to feed cattle and dairy industry went up significantly.

“It’s amazing what producers are receiving for forage and so when you look at high feed prices that of course impact,” Bell says.

Bell says that it’s to early to say that there has been 100 percent loss of the wheat crop, but there is still concern for a major loss of the crop.

Source - https://www.newschannel10.com