Drier weather brings farmers to the fields

Thanks to dry weather, wheat harvest was in full swing across most of the High Plains region the week of June 30.

Kansas

In eastern Kansas, Steve Wilson at Baldwin Grain, Baldwin City, Kan., said they were taking in a lot of wheat on July 1. Test weights have ranged from 50 to 60 pounds per bushel and the average yield has been around 35 bushels per acre.

Wilson said there was a chance harvest would be 50 percent completed by July 2. Wheat harvest got off to a slow start in eastern Kansas as many farmers were rushing to complete soybean planting before they started up their combines.

Baldwin Grain serves producers in Douglas, Johnson, Miami, and Franklin counties.

According to the harvest report from Kansas Wheat, harvest began in northwestern Kansas, around Colby and Goodland, July 1.

In the Colby area, Kansas Wheat Commission Vice Chairman Mike Brown, said average test weights for the crop are about 62 pounds per bushel, with moisture in the 12 percent range.

In north central Kansas, Mitchell County is reporting its harvest is 75 percent completed. Teri Bell, at Farmway Coop, Beloit, reported more than one million bushels have been accepted at the location, according to the Kansas Wheat harvest report. Before rains fell over the weekend, test weights were as high as 65 pounds per bushel, but have dropped to about 61 pounds per bushel. Proteins are averaging 12 to 15 percent, with yields ranging from 50 to 80 bushels per acre.

Missouri

It was a different story in southwest Missouri as heavy rainfall once again stopped any field work. Patricia Miller, Extension Agronomy Specialist based in Vernon County, Mo., said by the first of July the first planting of soybeans was not completed and it was time to harvest wheat.

Heavy rains fell across southern Bates County, portions of Vernon County and Cedar County on June 27. Miller said some areas received as much as 8-inches of rainfall. Yields will be down due to wet field conditions and disease in the 2008 wheat crop.

Miller said some producers tried to bale straw on wheat fields that had been cut but the straw was just too tough.

Oklahoma

The National Agricultural Statistics Service recently reported that Oklahoma has reached 93 percent completion of its 2008 winter wheat harvest.

In Oklahoma, most of the wheat crop was classified as "good." The Oklahoma Wheat Commission has gathered a lot of information from the testing program at Plains Grains. According to Mark Hodges, the crop had an overall decrease in protein, due to a lack of nitrogen available as the plant was filling out grain.

The Altus grainshed has complete information, with an average dockage of .45 percent, which he called outstanding. The wheat from that area averaged 62 pounds per bushel with 10.85 percent protein.

Partial results from other grainshed were released. In Kingfisher, the area had average test weights of 60.51 pounds per bushel, with .32 percent dockage and 10.3 protein. The Catoosa grainshed reported an average 58.4 pounds per bushel, .46 percent dockage and 10.34 percent protein. The Enid grainshed reported an average of 59.48 pounds per bushel with .31 percent dockage and 11.52 percent protein.

Hodges reported that milling and baking tests are still being conducted.

Colorado

Most of the harvest is occurring between Baca County and Cheyenne County, according to Darrell Hanavan, executive director of Colorado Wheat.

Baca County is about 55 percent complete. Test weights are ranging 60 to 64 pounds and protein averaging 12 percent, Hanavan said.

"Yields are ranging from 10 to 40 bushels because of drought conditions. Everything south of I-70 is really, really dry and some of the 10-bushel wheat that didn't emerge in fall came up this spring," Hanavan said.

One Walsh area producer completed harvest June 27. His summer fallow wheat averaged 30 bushels. A Springfield producer said his dryland wheat was averaging 20 bushels while irrigated wheat ranged from 30 to 70 bushels.

North to Prowers County, harvest was 35 to 40 percent complete July 1, with yields ranging from 20 to 50 bushels per acre with an average of about 25 bushels. Test weights are above 60 with protein at 12 percent-plus.

"One producer said he was half-done. Most of his production was south of Lamar," Hanavan said. "He'd destroyed 20 percent of his crop earlier this spring. It's been so dry this spring that some of the spring crops didn't get planted. Those will go back to wheat.

Harvest was about 50 percent complete July 1 in Prowers County. Yields ranged from 15 to 35 bushels with an average of mostly 20 bushels per acre.

"What he hadn't harvested sprouted this spring, so he waiting for it to ripen. It needs another week of so," said Hanavan, who added he could not report much harvest activity in Kiowa County.

"It just started in Haswell and Towner. Cargill at Cheyenne Wells reported some wheat was coming from Towner," Hanavan said. "They took in 100 loads June 30. Test weights were between 55 to 62 pounds. Protein averaged nine to 13 percent and yields ranged from five to 40 bushels per acre. That was their first big day."

7/7/08
1 Star WK\5-B

Date: 7/2/08

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