In 3 days 105 stakeholders from all segments of the wheat industry checked out 652 fields of wheat to project a final crop for Kansas of 178 million bushels. Down 13 million bushels from USDA’s estimate and significantly lower than last year’s 260+ million bushel crop. This also makes it one of the smallest wheat crops for Kansas in decades.
The reason for the drastic drop is the 2nd year in a row of catastrophic drought. USDA has already noted 18% of the winter wheat crop has been abandoned. The tour was projected 25-30%. Some analysts believe it may be even closer to 40%.
Here are the people we talked with and featured over those 3 days;
Western Kansas farmer Clay Schemm gives a first hand account of what the wheat crop looks like in Western Kansas. Schemm also details as a young farmer how he continues to be optimistic in the midst of a drought.
Gary Millershaski is President of the Kansas Wheat Commission. His farm is in the heart of the extreme drought in Southwest Kansas. He highlights that only 10% of his farms winter wheat will make it to harvest. Millershaski also points out what keeps his family in a positive spirit in the these tough times.
James Johanson is NASS’s national wheat statistician. He highlights how NASS gathers wheat data for USDA reports. Along with how accurate some of the data is in USDA reports.
K-State Agronomist Jeanie Falk Jones discusses what physical impacts the drought has done to wheat that may be taken to harvest. Jones also discusses what farmers are doing if they have lost their wheat crop.
Royce Schaneman, Executive Director of the Nebraska Wheat Board, gave the Nebraska wheat update after day 1 of the Winter Wheat Tour.
Dennis Schoenhals is President of the Oklahoma wheat growers and shares how the winter wheat looked in Oklahoma during the winter wheat tour this week. Dennis also shares what his family is doing to offset the losses caused by the drought on their farming operation.
Kansas Wheat’s VP of research and operations Aaron Harries details the final estimates from the Wheat Quality Council’s winter wheat tour.
Wheat field outside Clay Center Kansas
Thin stand of wheat in Norton County Kansas.
A fuller wheat stand in Logan County Kansas on Highway 83.
An abandoned wheat field in Scott County Kansas.
