Wheat harvest gathers speed with hot, dry weather

Wheat harvest got off to a halting start this week, but started taking off with the arrival of hot, dry, windy conditions on Friday.

The whole state will see perfect conditions for cutting at least through Thursday, and harvest should progress quickly.

The National Weather Service is calling for highs in the 90s across the state, with no rain, but a moderate wind at least through the weekend.

Paul Paxson, an elevator operator at the Progressive Ag Coop’s north Argonia location, said some midweek rains slowed the start.

“It was kind of start and stop,” he said. “But, today, it’s really starting to move.”

Once it gets going, he said, trucks will be lined up at the elevator waiting to unload.

Wheat farmer Scott Van Allen, who farms south of Clearwater, has been cutting for a couple of days, but the weekend will mean an acceleration.

“It will be busy, very busy,” he said.

He expects yields to be above average. That would dovetail with the U.S. Department of Agriculture assessment of an above-average yield for the state.

The prediction by USDA, as of June 1, is for 44 bushels per acre, compared to a 10-year average of 39.7 bushels per acre. That’s mostly because of a much more optimistic assessment of southwest Kansas, which saw a late blizzard and disease, than the USDA’s May 1 appraisal.

However, the total production for the state will be well down from the 2016 record harvest because farmers have chosen to plant less wheat in favor of other crops, particularly soybeans, with higher prices.

The USDA forecast projects the wheat harvest will be just 65 percent of last year’s crop, at 303 million bushels.

The wheat harvest generated $1.5 billion for the state’s economy last year.

This story was originally published June 9, 2017 at 5:26 PM with the headline "Wheat harvest gathers speed with hot, dry weather."