Parson, Kansas — The wheat fields of America’s heartland and their amber waves of grain  inspired Katharine Lee Bates to mention them in her song “Amer-ica the Beautiful.”

That was in 1895 and now, in 2010, those ripening, golden wheat fields are beginning to wave yet again and harvest is nearly upon us.

According to Jeff Edwards, Oklahoma State University Extension small grains specialist, the wheat in Oklahoma is generally looking pretty good.

“Overall, wheat yields are coming in pretty good where they have started in southwest Oklahoma,” he explained. “Harvest is starting to make its progression to the north but the humid days are slowing things up a bit.”

Although the wheat in Oklahoma seems to be in good shape, Edwards feels acres were down just a little.

“Due to rainfall during the fall planting was delayed,” he said. “We also had more people double-cropping last year. Some of those crops came off later and that prevented wheat from going in the ground.”

Approximately 5.5 million acres were planted to wheat in Oklahoma.

With the recent rains that fell across the state, Edwards is somewhat concerned as harvest moves northward.

“A big issue right now is rainfall,” he said. “In northern Oklahoma we already have saturated ground and the wheat isn’t quite ready. If it continues to rain I am fearful we could run into muddy conditions.”

But, when looking at the wheat that has come in already, Edwards feels the crop is looking good so far.

“In our test plots near Altus we are seeing 50 bushel to the acre yields which fits into the 40-60 bushel per acre yield we are shooting for,” he explained. “Test weights are coming in around 60 pounds so things are looking good so far.”

The kicker this year, according to Edwards, is the low protein level of wheat harvested.

Weather, again, is a major contributing factor to lower protein levels in this year’s crop.

“Most models predict you need hot temperatures during grain fill to boost protein,” he explained. “We had more cool, wet weather during that time so it really worked against us.”

He also attributes the lower protein levels to the fact that last winter was so wet and producers weren’t able to top-dress or get their wheat fertilized in a timely fashion.

Weather conditions alone were not the only factor in how much nitrogen fertilizer got applied. Economics in general played a big role as well.

“Coming off of a freeze year last year and just a tough couple wheat years in general, cash flow prevented some producers from fertilizing as much as they would like to,” he explained.

Cutting back on nitrogen applications, according to Edwards, leads to less protein and lower yield.

“My question is, if we wouldn’t have cut back, could we be looking at 50 to 70 bushel yields this year?” he asked. “It behooves our farmers to do a good job with fertilization because it directly impacts grain yield.”

Another factor affecting grain yields this year, according to Edwards, was the presence of barley yellow dwarf in wheat fields.

“We have seen a lot of barley yellow dwarf this year which meant we had aphid issues earlier in the year,” he explained.

Although he said it is hard to say how much that affected yield, he felt it did account for some reduced yields.

“The presence of barley yellow dwarf in Oklahoma wheat fields could have knocked as much as 20 percent off the overall yield, but definitely not in every case.”

Edwards feels Oklahoma wheat harvest will more than likely be in full swing in another week or two and overall the crop is going to be very productive.

As he contemplated the world wheat outlook Edwards was not optimistic about any price increase this year for wheat.

“I think the way things are shaping up, in terms of total production, we will be close to average or above average production,” he explained. “Due to carryover stocks on the world market I don’t see improvement on price.”