Day 10, Kansas Wheat Harvest Report

This is day 10 of the 2015 Kansas Wheat Harvest Reports, brought to you by the Kansas Wheat Commission, Kansas Association of Wheat Growers and the Kansas Grain and Feed Association.

Harvest is beginning to wrap up in many areas of the state while others haven’t gotten much of a chance to start. While there has been some test cutting in northwest Kansas, harvest hasn’t been able to get much of a foothold due to wet conditions and high moisture in the crop.

Richard Harmon doesn’t plan on leaving Mid State Farmers Coop in Rush Center much over the 4th of July weekend. He says it's 98 percent of the way done in his area and they will be busy accepting wheat all weekend. They first started receiving wheat about three weeks ago and have, so far, taken in about 2.1 million bushels. Harmon reports that yields have been anywhere from 15 to 70 bushels per acre with test weights averaging just over 60 pounds per bushel.

Harmon says this year the biggest struggle for farmers’ wheat crop has been the dry early spring and disease pressure. Overall though, compared to last year he says this year’s wheat harvest is about double.

Ruthann Spare, a farmer near Ellinwood, reported that her operation would have finished wheat harvest Thursday if rain showers had not moved through the area. She explained that extremely late planted wheat was hampered by dry winter conditions and remained very short.

“Our wheat just did not have a chance from the beginning,” she said.

Spare said the farm received 10 inches of rain in May, which salvaged the crop from being zeroed out, but added rye issues. She reported yields ranging from 20 to 30 bushels per acre, and average test weights of 60 pounds per bushel.

General Manager for Phillips Seed, Eric Woofer, explains that this year’s wheat crop has been much better, but also more challenging in Hope, Kansas.

“Last year we knew we were going to have a poor crop,” said Woofer. “This year, though, we thought we were going to have a poor crop and then we also had so much rain and disease pressure that we had a lot more hurdles than in the past.”

The many hurdles have not deterred harvest much as Woofer says yields ranged from 35 to 95 bushels per acre with test weights reaching 58 to 62 pounds per bushel. Woofer also reports that they have taken in approximately 400,000 bushels and plan on finishing by noon Friday, just in time for the weekend.

The 2015 Harvest Report is brought to you by the Kansas Wheat Commission, Kansas Association of Wheat Growers and Kansas Grain and Feed Association.