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Freeze damaged wheat yields tough decisions for farmers
By Doug Rich Rep. Jerry Moran, R-KS, toured wheat fields near Russell, Brookville, and McPherson to see the freeze damage to the crop for himself on April 30. "I wanted to tour several counties to get a good sense of what happened out here," Moran said. "When I see this and get a feel for what farmers are facing it gives me greater determination to tell the story in Washington, D.C. so that my colleagues can better understand what we are facing out here." What the Congressman from the Big First District saw is a wheat crop that 30 days ago had the potential to produce a record-breaking yield, but that is now reduced to a below average crop with drastically lower yields. Farmers are left with some very tough questions to answer as they try to determine what to do with their wheat crop. The first stop on the day long tour was near Russell. "We were in a field where damage was pretty obvious with a lot of the primary tillers burned back," said Dusti Fritz, CEO of Kansas Wheat. "The secondary tillers had some growth but there was going to be some significant yield loss when you think about the potential it had 30 days ago it was quite different." Fritz said the grower estimated the potential yield of this field was 80 bushels per acre but was down to 25 to 30 bushels per acre after the freeze. It was one of the earlier fields this farmer had planted. "Statewide we may have dropped the crop from a bumper harvest to down below average," Fritz said. "I think the central corridor, where much of the damage occurred, is now a below average crop. I think we were looking at a bumper crop but what it will ultimately be is anybody's guess." Jim Shroyer, K-State agronomist, said the epicenter of the lodged wheat is in the McPherson, Marion, Saline, Harvey, Dickinson, and Reno counties and radiates out from there south to Wichita and north to south central Nebraska. Shroyer said that just a few miles south of Highway 54 in Kansas the damage from the freeze tapers off rapidly. "McPherson County is much worse with pretty much all the wheat down," Shroyer said. "There are a few tillers just coming on but those are no better than spring wheat as far as I am concerned." He said heat stress later this growing season will probably claim most of the secondary tillers. The latest weekly crop report from the Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service stated that damage was light in 24 percent of the fields, moderate for 26 percent and severe in 25 percent of the fields across the state. According to the report about 75 percent of the Kansas wheat crop suffered some freeze damage. The most severe damage was found in early-planted fields where the crop was more mature. This was the case for Joe Kejr, president of the Kansas Association of wheat Growers (KAWG) who hosted the second stop on Moran's tour. The first field he showed to Moran had been in alfalfa two years ago so it was very lush when the freeze hit. It was planted on Oct. 2 to a mix of Overley and Jagger, two early varieties of hard red winter wheat. "Overley seems to have been hurt the worst," Kejr said. "A lot of these varieties are getting earlier and earlier, it helps avoid the heat in the summer but there is more risk of freeze damage in the spring." Allan Fritz, K-State wheat breeder, said there is a pretty big correlation between planting date and freeze damage. wheat that was early and further along got hurt more than later planted varieties. He noted, however, that even wheat planted later, that had reached the same growth stage, and been hit by the same freeze it would have had the same reaction. "Just about every variety we have has some Jagger traits in it, which has been great, but we need a little wider genetic pool," Kejr said. Now Kejr and farmers across the state are faced with the decision about what to do with the crop they have left after the freeze. Do they tear it up and plant another crop such asSoybeansor grain sorghum? Do they leave it and take the chance that it will yield enough to cover the cost of harvest? Do they continue to put inputs into a crop that may not produce anything? Tom Maxwell, Saline County agriculture Extension agent, said going to another crop depends on what herbicide a producer had on their field. If a producer had no herbicide or a short residual herbicide then their options are open to soybeans, grain Sorghum or sunflowers. In Saline County it is a little late for corn. If a farmer has used Finesse herbicide then he could plant an STS soybean variety and there is a supplemental label for grain sorghum, according to Maxwell. It states that at a 4 ounce rate of Finesse and a soil pH no higher than 7.5, a grower could plant grain Sorghum four months after the original application. Kejr has already contacted his insurance company and they have marked the strips he needs to leave in the field if he decides to go to another crop. "They marked strips and we can abandon it whenever we choose to," Kejr said. "They won't do the adjusting until it is headed out and they have something to go on." "We have not tried to appraise anything yet because it is just too early," Ray Zurfluh, a crop adjuster for National Ag Underwriters. "If we are counting right now we have to count anything green that is a live plant and you know darn well they are not going to do anything. Secondary tillers would be counted right now and those tillers will probably not produce anything." Zurfluh said farmers who are going to plant another crop need to leave a strip 10-foot wide the length of the field. The number of strips depends on the size of the field. "We don't want the worst spot in the field and we don't want the best spot just a representative sample." Zurfluh said. He said it is a tough decision for the farmers right now. They don't want to put good money after bad. Zurfluh said farmers can fully insure the second crop but they will only get 35 percent of the wheat coverage. Then if they don't have a loss on the second crop the insurance company will pay them the remaining 65 percent on the wheat crop. A lot of producers don't even worry about insurance on the second crop. Total indemnity on two crop losses in one year is 130 percent. "This has been a problem with crop insurance for the last couple of years," Rep. Moran said. "It came about due to crop insurance fraud cases, primarily in Texas, where people planted crop after crop designed to fail. This is not a good solution." "We need to address crop insurance," Rep. Moran said. "We want to make sure the rules have some level of common sense and that the adjusters are trained and prepared." "We continue to battle for disaster assistance, but I don't know if 2007 will be many Kansas farmer's worst year," Moran said. "My best guess is that what we will end up with as a disaster package will be a choice between 2005, 2006 or 2007. We have had such bad years in the past that even with this level of loss you would not choose 2007 for getting disaster assistance." Doug Rich can be reached by phone at 785-749-5304 or by e-mail at richhpj@aol.com. Date: 5/2/07
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