The fickle nature that is Kansas weather will certainly play a role in how happy Kansas farmers are this fall, Southwind Extension agent Lonnie Mengarelli said Thursday.
It already has in many cases, noted Mengarelli, with wide variances in moisture totals throughout southeast Kansas this spring and summer.
To wit, a Kansas State Extension weather observation station in Welda, about 20 miles north of Iola, has recorded more than 27 inches of rain since the spring, or about 8.5 inches more than normal. Yet, if you travel southwest 30 miles to Yates Center, the numbers are radically different. Over the past four months, the Woodson County reporting station has received less than 13 inches of precipitation, about 7.5 inches less than normal.
“Certain areas have gotten way more rainfall than others,” he said, adding that Woodson County and other parts of the Flint Hills seem to have missed out on several passing rainstorms.
FOR PRODUCERS who were able to get their corn planted early this year, and were lucky to get periodic rains into July, the fall harvest should be bountiful.
“But for the corn planted in May or June, the stuff that’s just starting to tassel, or may not have tasseled yet, they could be in a world of hurt,” Mengarelli said. “Corn yields are gonna be all over the board, depending on where you are.”
TEMPS have soared well into the 90s each of the past nine days, and aside from Wednesday’s overnight thunderstorms that blasted through the area, farmers have received little more than a pop-up shower here and there.
“The weather outlook is not promising, especially for soybeans,” Mengarelli said. “We need rain, and they’re not expecting any significant amount until maybe early September.”
While soybeans are hearty crops capable of withstanding summer temps, the plants begin shutting down if it remains above the mid-80s for sustained periods, he explained. The same goes for corn, once it gets above 90 degrees.
Provided they were getting timely rains in the spring and summer, corn crops already have tasseled and filled the kernels to full maturity.
“Now it’s a matter of drying them out,” Mengarelli said.
Delayed crops likely will be substantially downgraded without sufficient moisture in the next few weeks.
THE SPRING weather made for “average” wheat yields, Mengarelli said.
“It was wet in spots, and wheat doesn’t like to be wet,” he said. “It prefers hotter and dryer.
“The wheat harvest wasn’t bad, but it’s not what it was the last couple of years,” Mengarelli continued, with a majority of farmers harvesting in the 60- to 70-bushels per acre. “That’s pretty average, compared to the last two years, where they were pushing 90 to 100 bushels.”
