Kingfisher County farmers have begun “dusting in” the 2023 wheat crop.

Dusting in means sowing grain into soil that has negligible moisture.

It’s not an ideal situation but it’s a start.

Producers who use the strategy are banking on substantial rain later that will sprout and push the plants to the top and additional rain later necessary to keep the crop advancing.

Kingfisher County OSU Extension Agent Bryan Kennedy said Wednesday that producers know that their chances of producing wheat pasture at this point “are between slim and none.”

However USDA regulations called for sowing small grains by Friday, Oct. 14, to qualify for forage insurance.

Kennedy said he had received numerous inquiries and comments on small grain sowing options in recent days and many said they’d wait for a rain before putting seed in the ground.

That is a critical decision in Kingfisher County where most producers rely on small grain pastures to supplement cattle feeding during the cold weather months.

Kennedy said farmers have reported that when they dig into the ground at an inch and a half – the depth small grain is generally planted – they are finding no moisture.

The subsoil moisture is also gone due to abnormally dry conditions during the spring and summer.

Showers much of the county registered last week, while welcome, provided little help –totaling up to .5 inch in most locales – and Kennedy said the warm dry winds that followed the rain quickly dried fields and pastures.

Much smaller than normal hay production throughout the county is another major concern for farmer-stockmen struggling to maintain their cow-calf herds.

“They need wheat pasture to get them through the winter,” Kennedy said, “and prices for the limited hay available are astronomical.”

A USDA hay accessibility report for hay on the Internet Thursday listed prices for large round bales of bermuda grass hay from $80 to $140 per ton and showed availability of 200 bales of prairie-meadow hay in a price range of $65 per bale.

The U.S. Drought Monitor showed September as the driest in Oklahoma since 1956.

Kingfisher recorded a total of .57 inch of rain in September compared to 2.85 inches a year earlier and .25 inch thus far in October compared to 6.88 inches for all of October 2021, according to records maintained by Local Weather Observer Steve Loftis at the National Weather Service Station in Kingfisher.

The Mesonet site on the Mueggenborg farm immediately west of Kingfisher recorded a total of .28 inch for the preceding 72 hours as of Thursday.

Kennedy said he personally is waiting for rain before sowing on his farm west of Hennessey.

He said the forecast called for a chance of rain Saturday.

Many are watching and hoping the forecast proves right– and that the moisture is substantial.

Kennedy said that producers sowing for grain production have until November to make the decision to sow with expectations of harvesting grain.