The majority of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in the southern Great Plains is produced as a dual-purpose crop enterprise. Profitability of the system is highly dependent on removal of cattle from wheat pasture at the first hollow stem stage of growth, which is a variety-specific trait. It has been proposed that earliness of first hollow stem and earliness of heading are independent traits, which would allow a grower to select a variety with late first hollow stem without sacrificing early maturity. We evaluated first hollow stem and heading records for 63 hard red and hard white wheat cultivars over a seven-year period at Stillwater, OK. Our data show a positive, linear relationship between occurrence of first hollow stem and heading in wheat when these phenological events were expressed as a function of cumulative thermal time after Jan. 1. When expressed in terms of calendar date, however, intervals between the earliest and latest first hollow stem varieties were much greater than those for heading date. Overall, our analysis indicates that first hollow stem and heading in commercially-released winter wheat cultivars are closely related phenological events. Due to warmer temperatures and more rapid accumulation of thermal units during wheat heading, however, selecting a variety with much later first hollow stem will not necessary result in a much later heading date.