The 2019 HRW wheat harvest continues to “grind” on in Oklahoma and Texas while test cutting has started on the Oklahoma/Kansas border. The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) showed Texas at 27% complete with harvest early in the week. However, the majority of those harvested acres are in southern Texas. Harvesting from central Texas northward has been plagued with high moisture, cloudy days and cool temperatures until this week. Those conditions restricted harvest to only beginning late in the day (4pm to 5pm) with humidity then continuing to climb forcing shutdown before sunset. Additionally, fields in many areas were lodged and/or contained very heavy straw slowing ground speeds to less than 3 mph (4.8 kph).
On the positive side, very good yields and test weights of 58 lbs/bu. (76.4 kg/hl ) to well above 60 lbs/bu. (78.9 kg/hl) continue to be reported. However, it is extremely early in harvest. There has been no sprout damage reported from any location, a concern after the excessive rain received over the last 45 days in the central and southern Great Plains (see the Oklahoma Mesonet Map below).
The first 40 samples of the 2019 HRW harvest were delivered to Enid Grain Inspection on Thursday. Area represented central Texas though the southern half of southwest Oklahoma. The test weigh average of those samples was 59.7 lbs/bu. (78.6 kg/hl), 0.4% dockage, total defects of 1.3% and an average protein content of 10.9% (but protein is expected to increase as harvest moves west).
| Tst | Exp | MST | Pro% | DKG | TKW | FN | Grade | Test | Weight | FM | DMG | S&B | DEF |
| 40 | 500 | 12.3 | 10.9 | 0.4 | 2HRW | 59.7 | 78.6 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 1.3 | ||
| FINAL | 2018 | ||||||||||||
| 488 | final | 10.6 | 11.4 | 0.6 | 31.8 | 367 | 1HRW | 60.8 | 80.0 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 1.1 |