Wichita ? This year, the success of the winter wheat harvest in much of western Kansas may depend not so much on the weather, but how much insect damage milling companies will tolerate in flour.

Several elevators have shipped samples of grain damaged by wheat head army worms to millers. Those results may ultimately determine the price Kansas farmers get for their crop and whether people or livestock will end up eating it.

Kansas is the nation’s biggest producer of wheat, and the state’s flour milling industry also ranks first in the country.

In Logan County, some wheat is already going to feedlots because of the worm problem, according to the state harvest office in Oakley. This comes in a year when test weights in the area have been running at 60 pounds per bushel, the benchmark for No. 1 wheat.

“It is a great crop, and to get this blow to everybody’s ego is depressing and disappointing,” said Roger Snodgrass, manager of the McDougal-Sager & Snodgrass Grain elevator in Atwood.

Snodgrass said almost all of the wheat coming in to his elevator has some insect damage.

“To the degree it is a big concern,” he said. “I’d say we are kind of on a threshold.”

The Atwood elevator has sent a sample to an Archer Daniels Midland milling plant for testing, and what the elevator hears back ultimately will decide whether the insect damage will be a problem, Snodgrass said.

In Atwood, the damage has been around seven insect-damaged kernels per 100-gram sample.

“We are just getting started barely here with wheat harvest,” he said. “It is not as big an issue as places that have a bunch of wheat. Hopefully, by the time that happens here either we will have this further resolved or at least have a better plan.”

The Kansas Grain Inspection Service said Thursday it was seeing some wheat head army worms in samples brought at its offices at Concordia, Salina, Dodge and Colby.

“I feel for these guys,” said chief inspector Randy McCormick.

The number of insect-damaged kernels found per 100 grams of wheat has been running from 4 to 14, McCormick said.

In samples taken from railcars loaded in affected areas, the number of damaged kernels have been lower than 5.

Damage of up to 32 insect-damaged kernels per 100 grams of wheat is considered fit for human consumption. Damage at 5 kernels and under is considered good enough wheat to make flour.

Under regular standards, anything above 5 kernels is discounted at a rate of 1 cent per damaged kernel. The Kansas Wheat Commission reported that some elevators were making the standards more lenient.