It’s fun to be a Douglas County farmer again.

Combines began rolling Wednesday through Douglas County wheat fields, and farmers were jubilant at what promised to be a well-above-average crop.

“The people that have come in have been tickled to death,” said Steve Williamson, of the Ottawa Co-op’s South Lawrence elevator. “I had a guy saying he would be coming in tomorrow with the heaviest wheat that he had ever seen.”

Baldwin Feed Co. reported receiving loads of wheat that averaged 70 bushels per acre, while Williamson said his elevator was receiving wheat that averaged in the high-60 bushels per acre. Last year’s county average was 40 bushels per acre and the six-year average was 41.7 bushels.

“I wish I had a combine to get in there and help them cut it,” said Bill Wood, Douglas County agriculture extension agent. “I think most farmers, if they have some wheat, would say, ‘Let’s get going.’ It looks like it is going to be a good year.”

Charles Jehle began cutting wheat late Tuesday on his 400-acre farm near Worden. He said the crop was one of his best in the 30 years he’d been farming in the area. He also said it came at a good time because last year’s fall harvest of row crops was among the worst in memory.

“It wasn’t good last year at all,” Jehle said. “But a good crop is always welcome anytime.”

Williamson said he expected the harvest to be in full swing by Friday, if dry weather holds. And area farmers are excited to get their combines into the fields.

Larry Craig harvests wheat in his field northeast of Vinland. Area farmers headed to their fields Wednesday afternoon to cut the first of this year's wheat crop in the area. Yields of up to 70 bushels an acre were being reported in Douglas County.

Steve Wilson, operator of Baldwin Feed Co., said he thought the early results were a good indication of what was to come.

“It won’t all be 70-bushel wheat, but I think a lot of it will be,” Wilson said. “But with prices around $3 a bushel, they’ll need a good crop like that to make any money.”

Now that harvest has started, farmers are hoping for a week to 10 days of dry weather that will allow them to get their crop out of the fields and into the bins. But Wood said farmers would be hoping for rain shortly after wheat harvest to boost the county’s corn and soybean crops, which are a much larger part of the Lawrence-area farm economy than the wheat crop.

“For our corn and soybeans, I would hate to go 10 days without any rain,” Wood said.

Traditionally, Douglas County farmers plant 5,000 to 8,000 acres of wheat versus 45,000 acres of soybeans and 25,000 acres of corn.

Monday, the Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service reported just 1 percent of the state’s wheat crop had been harvested. By this time a year ago, 3 percent of the wheat was already in the bin. The five-year average is 10 percent harvested by this time in the season.

The service rated wheat condition as 5 percent very poor, 11 percent poor, 31 percent fair, 42 percent good, and 11 percent excellent.

¢ 6News video: Wheat harvest appears to be above expectations¢Wheat harvest underway in Kiowa (6-10-03)¢Area wheat harvest expected to be early, above average (6-4-03)¢State wheat harvest expected to top 2002 (5-13-03)¢Kansas wheat crop forecast at 346 million bushels (4-11-03)