The region's wheat crop may have escaped a damaging freeze over the weekend, but a spring snow storm puts a threatening cloud back over it.

An upper level disturbance slipped into the area late Sunday night and continued through noon on Monday, dropping a blanket of wet snow across the wheat crop.

"I think we did indeed dodge the bullet this last week regarding freezing temperatures, but the current weather certainly is not helping things," said Dr. Brent Bean, Texas Cooperative Extension agronomist. "Temperatures hoovering around 32 F can be a potential problem with wheat that is blooming."

Below-freezing temperatures, or in some cases near freezing, will sterilize the wheat pollen, preventing grain from forming in the heads, Bean said. Some wheat in the area is at this critical stage.

"We will just have to wait and see. I am not anticipating any widespread problems, although we are certainly treading on thin ice," Bean said.

Another problem from the wet, cool weather is stripe rust, he said.

Anyone with irrigated wheat that has not yet bloomed should consider treating with fungicide," Bean said. "The weather we have had the last seven days has been ideal for stripe rust. And the problem has gotten much worse in the last few days."

He said the most likely scenario in stripe rust infested fields is yield reductions of 20 percent to 50 percent. The reduction will get worse as long as the weather stays wet and cool, Bean said, which is the forecast for the rest of the week.

In some cases producers should consider treating dryland wheat that has good yield potential, he said. Conserving as much green tissue as possible should translate into higher yields.

Varieties that are somewhat tolerant to stripe rust are Cutter, Jagger, Jagaline, 2145 and Overly, Bean said. All other varieties, with the exception of some of the Russian beardless varieties, are susceptible with TAM 110 appearing to be very susceptible.

Haying rust-infested wheat should be a good option for those producers not wanting to treat with fungicide or roll the dice on grain yield, Bean said.

"The quality should be good, although protein content might be slightly less," he said. "Rust does not cause a potential iron problem in wheat."