Wheat crops looking good

Robert Lee fills a truck with the wheat yield.

By: NANCY MARLOWE | SCNow
Published: July 01, 2008

STUCKEY - Harvest time for winter wheat is here and things are looking good for wheat farmers. This year's growing season has been great and harvest time has been fairly dry. The prospective outlook for wheat yield is good because of the average rainfall it received when needed and the dry weather that helped the crop to ripen for a good harvest.
Wheat normally needs between 110 and 130 days between the planting season and harvest time. This depends on the climate, soil conditions, and the type of seed that was planted. Shane Stuckey of Stuckey has been in the farming business for about seven years. He graduated from college in 2001 with a business degree, but then chose to go into the family business of farming that his granddad had started.
"I've always worked on the farm since I was a little boy," Shane said. "I started out working in tobacco and continued from there."
Wheat is not the only crop that Stuckey farms. He's also planted cotton and peanuts in May, which will be harvested in the fall and he plans to plant soybeans after the wheat harvest. Last year's wheat crop brought only 40 to 60 bushels an acre.
This year because of a good growing season, he expects to get 60 and 80 bushels per acre out of the 240 plus acres that he's planted. With help from Robert Lee, Melvin Platt, and Gary Cooper, Stuckey began harvesting his wheat crop on June 9. Weather permitting, he hopes to finish during this week.
"Every year the crop yield can be different," Stuckey said. "You take the good and bad as it comes. When it's good, you make it, and when it's bad, you hold onto what you've got. The economy as a whole is tough for everyone right now. We always have to watch the cost of everything."
Wheat is the second most produced crop among all other cereal crops. This year's winter wheat crop is expected to set a high yield record.

Wheat crops looking good

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