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Hard white Wheat takes heavy weather losses in Kansas
WICHITA, Kan. (AP)--About half of the hard white winter Wheat in Kansas has suffered so much drought or sprout damage that the crop isn't fit for human consumption, industry leaders said. To make matters worse, it won't earn much federal incentive aid either.
"It was a setback, no question about it, for hard white Wheat in Kansas this year," David Frey, administrator of the Kansas Wheat Commission, said July 19.
Kansas is the nation's leading grower of hard white winter wheat. Its light-colored flour is often favored by international customers for making noodles and flat breads, among other products.
But Frey estimated that half of the Kansas acreage of the state's variety had significant sprout damage. His agency is now working to salvage what it can of the crop as feed for cattle feedlots.
"It makes excellent cattle feed," Frey said.
U.S. exports of white Wheat have increased tenfold in the last five years--up nearly 200,000 metric tons--with the introduction of better yielding white varieties and added government subsidies for farmers who grow the variety, the group said.
Kansas had 445,000 acres planted with hard white varieties for its 2004 crop. That is 5,000 acres more than a year earlier. Four of the top white Wheat producing counties are in northwest Kansas--where a long-standing drought coupled with untimely harvest rains has caused extensive damage.
Farmers of the variety had hoped to collect an extra 20-cent-per-bushel payment under the government's hard white Wheat incentive program. To qualify, it must grade as at least No. 2 wheat--that means a minimum 58 pounds per bushel test weight with less than 5 percent defects such as sprouting, Frey said.
"That is a huge issue," he said. "Unfortunately, there is going to be a lot of Wheat that is not going to qualify. This incentive has been a huge benefit to Kansas. We grew two-thirds of the hard white Wheat grown last year in the United States."
Despite this year's setback, industry leaders are confident about the future of hard white Wheat in Kansas.
"A lot of farmers are saying this was a really unusual situation and they are not going to let this one year hurt their chances for an alternative wheat," Frey said.
Date: 7/22/04
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