Planted winter Wheat to go up

After short crop, high prices spur more farmers to plant winter Wheat this season in Kansas

WICHITA, Kan. (AP)--From inside his combine, Beloit farmer Michael Jordan worked methodically to cut his drought-stressed field of sunflowers.

He's been harvesting his sunflowers for 10 days now, and was anxious to get this season's crops cut, so he could begin planting his 2007 winter wheat--something he figures he will do in the first part of October.

Jordan had already calculated he would put 883 acres into winter Wheat this season, about 10 percent more Wheat acres than he has planted of the crop in the last two years. Not only does the Wheat work better with his crop rotation, but futures prices are good, he said. Other Kansas farmers will also be sowing more acres of winter Wheat this planting season.

Driven by a short 2006 winter Wheat crop in the United States and other major wheat-producing nations, Wheat prices have hovered at high levels not seen for years. And if futures prices on the commodity exchanges are any indication, they are expected to remain high.

"Overall we are going to see the state of Kansas plant a little more Wheat than we did last year," said Dusti Fritz, chief executive officer for the Kansas Wheat Growers Association. "How much more is anybody's guess."

Fritz said the ongoing drought will not keep Kansas farmers from planting wheat. She said high Wheat prices as well as fuel and fertilizer costs all play roles in the decision to plant.

About 13 percent of the 2007 winter Wheat crop has now been planted in Kansas, the nation's biggest Wheat producer, according to the Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service. That's just slightly behind last year and the average for this time in the season.

The Wheat association is already hearing from growers not locked into a fixed crop rotation schedule who are planting more Wheat acres.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service has estimated that 31.1 million acres of winter Wheat nationwide will be harvested nationwide from the 41.3 million acres planted.

While the recent rains came too late to help much of Jordan's sunflower crops, they have given him hope for next year's Wheat crop. "There is adequate moisture to plant--no surplus in the soil, but enough that I don't have any concern about whether I can get the crop up," he said Sept. 19.

In Garden City, grower Jay Cook had anticipated putting in far fewer acres of Wheat this year because it had been so dry all summer--temperatures in these parts had not been this hot since 1936, he said.

But a wet August and September have given Cook the confidence to put close to as many Wheat acres as he planted last season. He expects to sow nearly 2,000 acres into winter wheat. He picked Sept. 24 to start planting.

"It is not dry. It is nice," Cook said. "It is perfect moisture, as good as I ever had. Conditions really are good--optimal."

Doug Keesling, a Chase farmer who runs a certified seed business, said the majority of his customers are telling him they are not going to change their planting intentions too much because of their crop rotations.

That's particularly true of no-till farmers like himself who plan their crop rotations two to three years in advance, he said. But the more traditional farmers who farm with conventional tillage methods are telling Keesling their Wheat acres will increase.

For other growers who have watched the drought and resulting hay shortages, they hope an alfalfa crop will bring a better return on their land than wheat, Keesling said.

Date: 9/21/06

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