February’s sub-freezing temperatures and snow sent wheat into dormancy but all is not lost.

While the plants stopped growing, they will recover as temperatures moderate, Kingfisher County Extension Director Ag Educator Bryan Kennedy said.

While the plants are shorter and providing less forage for cattle at this point, wheat is a tough and adaptive plant, he said.

A light rain on the crop would do about as much as anything to help the wheat recover, he said.

He predicted that producers will be busy in the fields with their spray rigs soon, applying fertilizer and in some cases weed control chemicals.

He said cattlemen, who lost newborn calves during the brutal cold may be the worst hurt agriculturalists as a result of the storm.

He said calves can be worth $250, $300 or more at birth.

While there are no statistics available on calf losses due to the storm, many cattlemen lost calves during the sub-freezing weather.

Kennedy gave a personal example on the danger of freezing to newborn calves.

He said one of his cows gave birth during the coldest morning of the storm (minus 14 degrees). He said the cow had cleaned the calf up and everything appeared okay.

When he checked the pair a short time later, he noticed the calf’s ears appeared frozen on the tips and a short time later about half of each ear had fallen off.

While the value of the baby as a potential club calf may have been reduced, “at least we still have a calf,” Kennedy said.

He and many other stockmen in the county created warm nurseries for newborn calves during the prolonged wintry blast.

During the coldest periods of the Arctic blast, finding calves wthin 30 minutes of birth often was critical to their survival.