Farmers overcome weather challenges for promising harvest

By Jennifer M. Latzke

The wheat fields surrounding Greensburg, Kan., have taken their share of beatings this year. If it wasn't a late freeze that affected their young shoots, it was the early May tornadoes and the debris they carried, and more recently the early summer rains that made the conditions too muddy to cut the ripe grain.

But, despite the challenges, Greensburg area farmers are hoping this summer's wheat harvest will signal a return to normalcy.

Kenneth Schmidt is a retired farmer who still owns about 300 acres of dryland wheat south of Greensburg, which he rents to some of his relatives. wheat harvest on his farm has been pushed back to the first part of July because it's been too wet to move machinery into the fields.

"We're just getting started, even though the wheat's been ripe for about a week or two," Schmidt said. "With so much rain we haven't been able to get into the fields the past couple of days."

What little wheat has been cut isn't as good as last year's crop, Schmidt said. Still, getting any sort of wheat harvest in an area that's seen such weather extremes is good.

"Our test weights are lower," he said. "With so much rain on it, it's had an affect. We're seeing mostly 50s and some 60s." In a normal year, those figures would be in the upper 60s.

The major concern for most wheat farmers following the May tornadoes was picking up debris from fields so the grain could be harvested without ruining the machinery. Schmidt said the debris issue was pretty much taken care of by leagues of volunteers who came out right after the tornadoes and walked the fields, picking up anything that could get run through a combine.

"We had people walking 20 to 50 feet apart and they just walked through the fields when the wheat was still short enough," Schmidt said. "They picked up a lot of stuff from the fields. Lots of fields around here now have piles of various pieces of stuff to be hauled away after harvest."

The promise of warmer weather the first week of July was tempered with still more rain over the July 4th holiday. Schmidt said it would probably take his family most of the first week of July to get in and out of their fields.

"One of our neighbors was cutting into the evening, about 5 or 6 p.m., he was that anxious to get into it and get done," he said. "But, we have to watch out for the muddy spots in the field, still." It's a toss-up when farmers choose to cut so late in the day--they trade off harvesting grain with tougher cutting conditions due to higher moisture levels.

Still, getting a wheat crop at all is an amazing feat. Some of Schmidt's wheat acres were damaged enough by wind and hail this spring that the crop insurance ended up calling it a total loss.

Over in Greensburg, the folks at Southern Plains Cooperative Association are open for business, despite surviving an EF-5 tornado and customers who are delayed in their harvest timelines.

Danny McLarty, location manager, said it's frustrating that harvest is later this year because of rain.

"You know, you hate to say that there's ever too much rain in Western Kansas, but I'd settle for it to just dry up long enough for us to get the crop in," he said. McLarty said all three of Southern Plains' locations, in Greensburg, Breneman and Joy, may see decreased harvests this year because of lower than average test weights and rain delays.

"It's hard to get a handle on how far along we are, because there aren't any custom crews here in Greensburg," McLarty said. "Most guys are cutting their wheat with their own machines. I'd say we're about 40 to 50 percent done, but we really can't tell because so many of the folks we normally get grain from haven't been coming in."

While local yields may be down because of the wet conditions, McLarty said they do improve the farther west you travel in Kansas. "The west side of Kiowa County, in the Mullinville area, we're seeing better quality, higher test weights and that will help yields there," he said.

This harvest brought specific operating concerns to the Co-op. Immediately after the tornadoes hit Greensburg, it was apparent that the only landmark still recognizable was the elevators of Southern Plains Cooperative. Two weeks after the storms, the Co-op brought in a structural engineer to check out the storage facilities. "He said that the elevator is in excellent shape," McLarty said. Despite the ferocity of an EF-5 tornado, the elevators showed no signs of damage, and were in better condition than others their age, McLarty said.

An even more important concern was for the employees of Southern Plains Cooperative who'd had homes damaged or destroyed by the storms. McLarty said that while several of his employees suffered personal losses, they were back at the elevator, ready to work this harvest. The elevator is at a normal staffing level for the season, he added.

Still another side affect of the spring storms that could have been problematic for the elevator was the presence of any leftover storm debris in harvested wheat. However, the crew hasn't seen any great amounts of foreign matter in the grain. "The grain coming to us is remarkably clean," McLarty said.

A delayed harvest may also end up affecting the planting of doubl crops ofSoybeansor sorghum. So far, according to McLarty, the corn crop is up and theSoybeansthat have been planted are in good shape. Some folks who double-crop Sorghum may be a little later than usual, but everything else is in good shape.

And, for an area that has seen so much weather damage, "good" is a ray of sunshine.

Jennifer M. Latzke can be reached by phone at 620-227-1807, or by e-mail at jlatzke@hpj.com.

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7/9/07

1 Star WK

Date: 7/5/07

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