WICHITA, Kan. —
Kansas farmers put 396 million bushels of winter wheat in the bin during what has been the earliest Kansas harvest on record, a report released Wednesday shows.
“It is better than we thought it was going to be when harvest started,” said Bill Spiegel, spokesman for the industry group Kansas Wheat.
The Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service reported that this harvest is 43 percent larger than last year’s drought-stricken crop. It is also up 2 percent from last month’s forecast.
“We had some pretty rough weather from May 1 through harvest, so this is a good number — 396 million bushels is up pretty dramatically over last year, as the numbers say. We are pretty pleased with that crop,” Spiegel said.
The monthly crop production forecast is based on conditions as of July 1. By that time, the harvest was 99 percent complete. It was in full swing by the first week of June, making this the earliest one on record. Hot, windy conditions led to crops maturing two to three weeks ahead of normal.
The average yields were 44 bushels per acre, far better than the 35 bushels per acre Kansas farmers averaged a year ago.
This year’s crop was cut from 9 million acres, making it the largest area harvested in Kansas since 2006, KASS said.
That number particularly pleased Spiegel, who hailed it as a “big milestone” because for years Kansas farmers have been planting fewer and fewer acres of wheat.
Last fall, some 9.6 million acres of winter wheat were planted in the state, although not all made it to harvest, as recurring drought and sporadic hail took their toll. Part of the renewed interest in winter wheat likely came after much of the 2011 corn crop withered and fall rains made conditions favorable for planting wheat in the open acreage.
“This year, there are a lot of farmers in the state of Kansas that are facing again adverse conditions for the corn and soybeans — and a lot of the same farmers harvested a pretty good wheat crop — so if you want to do the math, it kind of seems wheat can be a little more forgiving in adverse conditions perhaps than some of our other crops,” Spiegel said.
Nationwide, winter wheat production is forecast at 1.67 billion bushels. That number is down 1 percent from last month, but still up 12 percent from a year ago.
Farmers in in Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, and Colorado were all forecast to cut more wheat this season than a year ago. The agency predicted smaller wheat crops in Nebraska and South Dakota.
The harvest for hard red winter wheat, the type of wheat Kansas mostly grows, was down nationwide by 1 percent to 1.01 billion bushels.
Local News
Report: Size of Kan. wheat crop up 43 percent
- Local News
-
-
Alcohol, speed suspected factors in fatal crash Saturday
The driver in a double-fatality accident Saturday in Joplin is suspected of having been intoxicated and speeding at almost twice the posted limit. He may also have been attempting a trick-driving maneuver, according to a probable-cause affidavit.
-
New Mexico man draws prison term in Joplin child-rape case
A 59-year-old man was sentenced to 15 years in prison Monday after pleading guilty to sexual abuse of a developmentally disabled 8-year-old girl in Joplin. Robert L. Newton pleaded guilty in Jasper County Circuit Court to first-degree statutory rape, first-degree statutory sodomy and felony failure to appear in court in a plea agreement with the prosecutor’s office.
-
Carthage School Board OKs $45 million budget
A proposed budget that sets Carthage School District spending at $45.7 million for the fiscal year starting July 1 was approved by the Carthage School Board on Monday night. The budget represents an increase of almost 3.5 percent over spending in the current year’s budget. It also includes additional teaching positions and increases in staff pay, said Superintendent Blaine Henningson.
-
Mike Pound: It’s OK to leave dad alone on Father’s Day
My wife was worried that I would mind being alone for a couple of hours on Sunday.
Sunday was Father’s Day, and my wife had the crazy notion that I wanted to be surrounded by kith and kin all day. -
Joplin City Council to move forward on $130 million recovery proposal; curbside recycling election resurrected
Residents kept the house packed to the end of a 2 1/2-hour meeting of the Joplin City Council on Monday night to encourage the panel to resurrect some kind of curbside recycling proposal and to hear the details or support a $130 million recovery plan.
-
Board chairwoman: Bruce Speck out as MSSU president
Bruce Speck is “no longer president” of Missouri Southern State University, the Board of Governors disclosed Monday. The announcement was made late Monday afternoon following a unanimous vote taken during a closed board meeting Friday.
-
Joplin to proceed with $130 million recovery plan, recycling election
The Joplin City Council on Monday night agreed to go forward with formal consideration of a $130 million recovery plan and revived a bill to hold an April vote of the people on the question of whether to institute curbside recycling.
-
Former disaster relief worker, others indicted for fraud following Joplin tornado
A federal grand jury has indicted a former employee of the Economic Security Corp. in Joplin, her boyfriend and a third alleged conspirator in connection with the defrauding of the government via tornado relief funds. A sealed, three-count indictment was returned June 11 in U.S. District Court in Springfield against Herlana L. Latham, 31, and Christopher L. Smith, 36, both of Memphis, Tenn., and John L. Williams, 30, of Cairo, Ill. T
-
Back on the books: Reassessment numbers reflect rebuilding after 2011 tornado
Owners of nearly 8,000 properties in Jasper County have been notified that the value of real property they own has increased, and rebuilding from the Joplin tornado represents a significant share of that number. Officials in the county assessor’s office recently mailed out notices of higher property values, raised as a result of countywide reassessment.
-
Crop-duster takes to skies again after walking away from crash
RIVERTON, Kan. — Two minutes after John “Tim” Kellogg flew over his rural Cherokee County home and waved at his wife on their porch, the oil pressure in his crop-dusting plane dropped and the engine began smoking. “I knew I was going to be on the ground in 15 to 20 seconds, and I knew it was going to be a hard landing,” he said. A former mechanic on F-16s, F-15s and F-4s for the U.S. Air Force, Kellogg, 48, had to make a split-second decision.
- More Local News Headlines
-
Alcohol, speed suspected factors in fatal crash Saturday
