Wichita ? Fewer planted acres, coupled with drought in the far western counties of Kansas, are expected to cut the 2002 Kansas wheat crop to 297.1 million bushels, the annual wheat tour estimated Thursday.

Last year Kansas farmers harvested 328 million bushels of wheat.

This year’s tour included 55 participants among them producers, millers, bakers, university experts and other officials who inspected 480 wheat fields across 90 percent of Kansas wheat growing country.

The group also estimated the average statewide yield at 35.6 bushels per acre, slightly better than their estimate during last year’s tour.

“This year we are going to need moisture just to maintain the yield and bushels that are out there,” said Brett Myers, executive vice president of the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers.

He said the group found no disease or insect damage in the fields where they stopped.

“For the most part, we’ve seen pretty good wheat,” Myers said.

Wheat growing in the northern tier of counties along the Nebraska border looked even better than last year. But from Atwood to Colby, stands were poor.

Counties bordering Colorado in far western Kansas and the southwestern corner of the state were in pretty bad shape.

Around the Garden City area, the wheat plants are just 7 to 8 inches tall, and already at a stage where they are not going to grow any taller. But by the time the tour group reached east of Larned, the wheat growth was closer to a normal 24 inches or more.

From Larned on east to Wichita the wheat is already headed out, and probably some six weeks away from harvest, he said.

From Wichita, tour participants went to Kansas City through Marion. The wheat through southeast Kansas, which has been getting plenty of moisture, looked real good and some fields there probably would be cutting 45-bushel-per-acre wheat.

This was the 45th year the group has done their own estimate of the wheat crop.