Wheat harvest early, production down

(Oklahoma City-AP) -- The wheat harvest is starting early in Oklahoma this year and officials say production and yield are expected to be down. <br/><br/>Agronomist Dale Fain says farmers are likely to

Thursday, May 20th 2004, 11:33 am

By: News On 6

(Oklahoma City-AP) -- The wheat harvest is starting early in Oklahoma this year and officials say production and yield are expected to be down.

Agronomist Dale Fain says farmers are likely to harvest a week to ten days early. He says an early harvest sometimes means the plant developed too quickly and doesn't have as much grain in the head.

The Oklahoma Agricultural Statistics Service expects farmers to gather just under 155-million bushels of wheat, down about 14% from last year. Yield is expected to be 36 bushels per acre, a drop of three bushels per acre from 2003.

The agricultural service projects 4.3-million acres will be harvested, down by about 300,000 acres from last year.