Day 8, Kansas Wheat Harvest Report

This is day 8 of the Kansas Wheat Harvest Reports, brought to you by the Kansas Wheat Commission, Kansas Association of Wheat Growers and the Kansas Grain and Feed Association.

Greg Peterson, a farmer near Assaria, reported his ground had gotten a little over an inch of moisture on Wednesday. His yields are around a 50 bushels an acre and test weights have ranged from 58-64 pounds per bushel. One standout variety for his operation has been Everest.

“It was looking a little sparse there for a while,” said Peterson. “But those rains during grain fill really perked it back up.”

Ryan McCoy, manager of Co-Mark Inc. in Cheney, said that while there was some rain in the area he was expecting slight decreases in yield and test weights in the areas that caught moisture. McCoy drew on his information from elevators around the state that are currently harvesting. Company-wide test weights are looking “exceptional” with the average topping 62 pounds per bushel. Yields are also performing well with seeing reports of 50-60 bushels an acre on many fields.

“We’ll probably handle 35% more grain than last year and 50% more than 2014,” said McCoy.

In Haven, Jeff Jones of MKC reported that his location has seen a little over an inch of rain on Wednesday. The rain slowed things down a bit on Thursday, but he estimated that most of the farmers would be back in the field later on Thursday.

“I think the guys a little disappointed that they couldn’t get wrapped up before that first rain,” said Jones. “Currently we’re around 40-45% done.”

Before the rains MKC was seeing a range of 60-65 pounds per bushel test weights. Farmers in the area were reporting 40-50 bushels per acre on dryland and 60+ bushels per acre with irrigation. Protein for the area was topping out at 11.3 percent.

Frank York, a farmer near Ashland, reported that while his area hadn’t seen any rains on Wednesday, he did catch some on Sunday and Monday.

“Yields and test weights had been exceptional, especially for this area,” said York. “However, we saw a little bit of a drop in both after the rains came.”

York said that his test weights had been running a 61-62 pounds per bushel range before the moisture, but weights dropped to around 59 pounds per bushel after. Yields for his crop had reached 53 bushels an acre, but he expected to see a decrease when he fired up his combine later on Thursday.

While this is the last harvest report of the week, visit #wheatharvest16 on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for live weekend updates from across the state. Kansas Wheat will to continue to broadcast more Facebook Live events from south central Kansas, depending on weather and farmer availability. For this exclusive #wheatharvest16 content, and more, please head to facebook.com/kansaswheat.

 The 2016 Harvest Report is brought to you by the Kansas Wheat Commission, Kansas Association of Wheat Growers and the Kansas Grain and Feed Association.