— Area sweet corn growers can’t wait for their crop to be “knee high by the Fourth of July.”

They might not have any left by then.

Last winter’s warmth coupled with the hot temperatures in late spring has meant an early harvest for sweet corn, field corn, wheat and other crops.

“Everything is two weeks ahead of schedule,” said Bob Ross, who raises corn and wheat on 1,500 acres near Webbers Falls. “We might well be out of corn by the Fourth of July.”

Ross said a lot of his sweet corn crop goes to roadside peddlers, farmers’ markets across Oklahoma and the Reasor’s supermarket chain.

“We’re picking about 1,000 bushels a night,” he said.

Brian Sheffield, who farms south of Fort Gibson, said warm winter definitely boosted his crop.

“The stalks came out in the cool weather when it was in the mid-60s at night,” he said.

His crews have been picking corn six days a week, he said.

Sheffield hopes to have enough sweet corn to continue through Independence Day, he said.

For people who want to buy corn now and store it until the holiday, Sheffield warned that corn does not keep for very long, whether at room temperature or in the refrigerator.

“The best thing would be to freeze it,” but not inside the husks, he said.

John Harrison sells Sheffield’s corn at his vegetable stand on Oklahoma 10 south of Fort Gibson.

“We’ve had a good bunch so far,” Harrison said, adding that his crop of tomatoes and squash “have been looking good.”

“And the last three days, we’ve had cantaloupe, which has been really good,” he said.

McIntosh County Extension Agent Randy Burris said nearly every farmer and producer he’s talked to reported being two weeks early.

Porter’s peach crop also is coming early. Locally grown peaches appeared at area markets as early as Memorial Day.

Peach grower Kent Livesay said the peaches are two or three weeks early. “We’ll have a good crop this year. We had no frost damage,” he said.

Livesay said he expected the peach crop to be healthy through September, which means lots of peaches will be available for the Porter Peach Festival in July. That marks an improvement from 2011, when a heavy freeze cut the harvest in half.

Ross said his wheat crop was the best he’d seen for a while. He said the yield on his 450 acres is 30 percent better than last year’s.

That pales in comparison with other parts of the state.

Paul Deffenbaugh, a regional operations manager for Consolidated Grain and Barge Co. in Catoosa, said parts of Oklahoma are reporting twice as much wheat as last year.

Reach Cathy Spaulding at (918) 684-2928 or cspaulding@muskogeephoenix.com.