With this year’s harvest, the longer it runs, the better it gets.

American Plains Co-op Association’s main office in Great Bend reported a company-wide 925,000 bushels of winter wheat taken in from their 16 elevators in Kansas and Oklahoma by Wednesday. According to Matt Penka, vice president of grain, yield range was at a low of between 6-7 to 25 bushels an acre, but that number is expected to increase as harvest moves along.

“At this point, we really don’t want cutting to end just yet,” Penka said. “I really hope that things will get better the longer it goes.”

A bright spot is that test weights are averaging between 59.5 to 60 pounds per bushel. Moisture is a dry 11.5-12%, but protein is high at 15%, he said.

Mid-harvest outlook

Overall, Kansas farmers are finally experiencing harvest weather, with a week of warmer temperatures ahead.

With combines rolling in slightly over two-thirds of the counties in the state, the 2023 harvest was about 21% complete Monday, according to the latest report by the Kansas Wheat Commission. By this time last year, harvest was about 54% finished, and 38% done for the five-year average according to statistics provided by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics crop progress report.

Wheat maturity was also rated at 58%, also behind the 84% from last year and the 77% five-year average.

Conditions were rated at 53% very poor to poor, with 31% fair and 16% good to excellent.

In Rice County, Brian Seiker has been cutting a sparse wheat crop a few miles west of Chase.

“I am pretty fortunate we even have wheat to cut this year,” Seiker told the KWC this week. His wheat was off to what looked like a great start in the fall, but snows and rain were rare and the wheat used up its residual moisture. With harvest in full swing, some of his neighbors did not even bother to bring out their combines, opting to abandon their wheat and move on to a different crop.

For Sieker, yields have ranged as high as mid-30s down into the teens. Moisture was normal at 11% and the test weights in some of his nearby fields were doing fairly well at 60 pounds per bushel.

Currently, Seiker is alternating between the combine and a swather, depending on the current dew point and humidity as he also produces alfalfa hay, corn, soybeans and sorghum. 

In eastern Kansas, meanwhile, farmers who escaped extreme drought conditions are seeing different results. In Montgomery County, sixth-generation farmer Jesse Muller started cutting his hard red winter wheat on June 13 but also had delays due to rain. Farming the land that has been in his family for multiple generations makes farming significantly more meaningful for Muller. This year’s crop, unlike other parts of the state, has Muller needing to calibrate his combine more often. 

Muller is seeing a wide variety of yields across his fields, ranging anywhere from 20 bushels per acre in some spots up above 70 to 80 bushels per acre in others. Test weights are averaging above 60 pounds per bushel in his fields, which were planted to a Kansas Wheat Alliance variety with excellent head scab tolerance. 

Moving westward to Pawnee County, harvest kicked off in Garfield Friday and the Larned area over the weekend.

“We’re just getting started,” reported Pawnee County Cooperative Association CFO Kim Barnes. By Tuesday, Garfield had received about 55,000 bushels, while the Larned elevator had taken in about 1,800. With no yield estimate yet, test weights ranged from 57-61 pounds.

Late rains brought more weeds leading to some abandonment and farmers may be looking to spray, Barnes noted. “We’re looking at a smaller crop this year,” noting that some of the harvest may wind up as seed wheat for next season. 

In northwestern Pawnee County Monday evening, Spencer Van Meter was preparing to dump out the grain cart as two combines were trying to wrap up one more field just over the county correction line for farmer John Converse an hour before sunset. They were cutting about a mile east of U.S. 183, just off 200 Avenue, that still showed the ruts from the massive storm the county got from the super cell that dropped about 3 inches of rain and marble-sized hail on May 8.

“Where we are right now, it’s probably about six bushels an acre,” Van Meter said. “It gets better as you go south, but it’s not real good. It’s a little lighter than normal, and it’s not good, but it’s better than nothing, I guess.

“This crop here went over 200 days without any more than a half inch of rain. It all came at the end when it couldn’t really use it.”

Julia Debes of Kansas Wheat contributed to this report.