Belle Plaine ? Working alone, Frank Anderson put another load of winter wheat into his 1952 grain truck Tuesday for the trip down to the local grain elevator.

“It is not near as good as last year we just didn’t have rain at the right time,” he said.

He began cutting his field a day earlier, and the stand is so thin he figures he’ll be lucky to get 40 bushels per acre. Last year, he got 59 bushels.

“It’s not a good situation, and prices aren’t good either,” Anderson said of the $2.75 per bushel he was getting at the local elevator. “I don’t know if I’ll make expenses.”

At the Farmer’s Co-Op Grain Elevator in Belle Plaine, elevator manager Gary Girard said the harvest here started Monday. The elevator had received 26 truckloads, or about 13,000 bushels, by Tuesday morning.

Test weights have been running between 55 and 60 pounds per bushel. It’s too early to estimate how many yields will come from each acre, he said.

“The wheat that has come in looks pretty good. But the wheat is thin in places,” Girard said. “Time will tell. They haven’t cut much.”

But at least farmers here have had some wheat to cut. For many farmers in western Kansas, this year will mark the harvest that never came.

At the Farmer’s Co-Op Equity Co. in Medicine Lodge, elevator worker Pam Packard said they have received just four or five loads so far.

“There is not much enthusiasm a lot of worry,” Packard said. “We haven’t had great harvests for a long time. The price is a real concern.”

Elsewhere in the state, harvest activity was spotty as forecast rains and muddy fields put a damper on cutting:

Harper County took in 130,000 bushels, with test weights at 58 pounds per bushel. Wheat is green to ready.

Comanche County took in 4,000 bushels in the Coldwater area and 3,750 bushels in the Protection area. Test weights are running between 58 and 61 pounds per bushel. About 5 percent of wheat acres has been cut.

In Sumner County, around Caldwell, the area took in 70,700 bushels, with test weights at 59 pounds per bushel. Around Wellington, farmers harvested 250,000 acres with test weights of 59 pounds per bushel. Harvest is expected to be in full swing by Wednesday, weather permitting.