Better than expected, but not what wed hoped for.
This is what I heard when I asked Kansas farmers about this years wheat harvest. Still, with the little moisture received during the growing season, the 2018 wheat crop panned out better than most Kansas farmers thought it would.
Steve Boor, Lincoln County farmer wrapped up harvest June 30, two weeks after he began. The 2018 wheat harvest dragged on longer than usual because of the pesky showers that dropped a few hundredths of rain then disappeared. The rain resulted in harvest delays as Boor and other farmers waited for the crop to dry out.
In addition to the holdups, the veteran Lincoln County wheat producer says the quality varied, the yields varied everything varied. The wheat looked much better going into the (combine) header than it did going into the bin.
Just spots, spots and more spots, Boor says. Wed be cutting along and go through a thin spot and ask, what happened here? It obviously wasnt the drill, it wasnt the sprayer it just amazed me that a field of wheat could go from little, if any wheat to good, thick wheat so quickly.
One of the challenges harvesters face in thin wheat is traveling fast enough to keep a steady mat of crop flowing through the combine. This is necessary to utilize the machines large threshing capacity.
Traveling at faster speeds to ensure efficient threshing sometimes presents its own inconveniences.
Hitting a good-sized badger hole at those (faster) speeds can certainly jar your teeth, Boor says.
Another sign of a stressed crop this harvest included a small percentage of stalks lodged too close to the ground to recover. Instances of broken stalks showed up throughout some of the fields.
Wheat protein levels on the Lincoln County crop will likely range from the upper 12s to the lower 13s. Yields varied from approximately 50 bushels-per-acre on the river bottom ground in widely isolated small patches to the mid-30s on much of the 2018 crop.
Im sure the wheat lightened up a bit the longer we cut, Boor says. Still, Im hoping the test weight hung tough at least about 59 pounds-per-bushel.
Amazingly enough this years wheat crop demonstrated its ever-enduring properties. It also proved once again, wheat needs timely moisture to produce an abundant crop.
During the early period of the growing season after the first of the year, Boor wouldnt have bet a plug nickel on even harvesting this years crop considering the lack of snow and rain.
You cannot fault the wheat for not yielding more, he says. The crop just played the hand it was dealt and did the best it could.
After talking with neighbors and other producers across Kansas, Boor believes the crop he harvested is like many others across the state.
