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Nov 08, 2009 (Enid News and Eagle - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Wheat planting has hit a slight hitch this fall, but it is pretty close to being on schedule.

"We are currently at 76 percent across the state," Roger Don Gribble, area agronomist at the Garfield County Oklahoma State University Extension office, said Monday.

That means about 76 percent of the winter wheat crop has been planted. That's slightly below normal -- about 85 percent of the crop statewide should be planted by this time of year.

In northwest Oklahoma, the number is a little lower.

"Probably in northwest Oklahoma, we're at 70 percent," Gribble said.

Gribble said weather extremes this fall are to blame for the lower-than-normal planting.

"We ran into a period of dryness around mid-September," he said. "We got fairly dry. (Recently), we've had above average moisture that's kept us out of the field."

What farmers are looking for, he said, is a firm, moist seed bed.

Gribble hoped, over this last week, planting would catch up to normal levels.

Fall crops must be harvested before the winter wheat crop is planted. Winter wheat is rotated with other crops, including corn, cotton, sesame, soybeans and sorghum.

Last year's statewide wheat harvest was 77 million bushels, well below the state average.

"We took a real hard freeze in April, and as a result our yields were less," Gribble said. "In the Enid area, it was about what was expected. The more you got to (Oklahoma 51), the worse it got."

Gribble added it's too early to tell what to expect from next year's wheat harvest. The best thing farmers can do now, he said, is hope planting begins to move along as scheduled.

According to U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agri-cultural Statistics Service, some 70 percent of the planted wheat statewide has emerged, and early indications are good. Most of the crop is rated good (59 percent) or excellent (18 percent). Another 20 percent is rated fair, while just 3 percent is rated poor or very poor.

A bright spot agriculturally so far is this year's winter canola crop, which Gribble is excited about.

"It looks really good," he said. "It's by far the best establishment year we've had."

Most of Oklahoma's canola goes toward making canola oil.

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Joe Malan

Copyright (C) 2009, Enid News and Eagle, Okla.

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