Wichita ? With hopes buoyed by a wet spring, farm leaders plan to visit the wheat fields of Kansas next week for a spring tradition — the annual winter wheat tour.

The trip, which begins Monday and covers 85 percent of the state during some 520-plus stops before winding up Thursday, will give participants a first inkling of the damage to the state’s wheat crop caused by the lingering fall drought and harsh winter temperatures and winds.

“The big question this year is what the stands are going to be like when we get out there in the western part of the state,” said Brett Myers, executive vice president of the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers.

It’s unknown how much wheat planted last fall actually sprouted and made it through the winter. But those fields which are growing likely will look better than they did a year ago at this time because this has been a wetter spring, he said.

In Hoisington, wheat grower Dean Stoskopf said wheat was showing drought stress after temperatures last week soared into the mid-90s and winds sucked lingering moisture from the fields.

Parched leaves are rolling up, showing the telltale dark blue cast of drought stress. On some wheat plants, the bottom leaves are so dry they have dropped off.

“It just doesn’t have a healthy look to it,” Stoskopf said.

But drizzling rain this week has boosted the spirits of many farmers. “When it rains everybody acts a little happier, a little more optimistic,” he said. “When we get hot, windy days like we had last week it is a little harder to be upbeat about things.”

Timely spring rains last year salvaged a crop that was otherwise struggling to survive in ground parched by back-to-back years of drought.

“We had a real good wheat crop last year. It was just timely rains that kept us going,” Stoskopf said. “It is gong to take that again this year to have a good wheat crop.”

Kansas had an excellent winter wheat crop last year — harvesting 480 million bushels in a year when few other crops prospered. Wheat production was up 80 percent from the drought-stricken 2002 wheat crop.

Kansas usually produces about 400 million bushels in a state renowned as the nation’s breadbasket. During the 2002 drought, Kansas harvested 267 million bushels. In 2001, the state harvested 328 million bushels.

Last year’s tour participants were not even close in their forecast — they pegged the 2003 winter wheat crop at only 364 million bushels.

“The number we come out with at the end of the tour doesn’t mean a thing. It is just what a group of people think the wheat crop looked like on three particular days. It has nothing to do with what the end harvest looks like,” Myers said.

But the tour is a good way for people in the industry to get together and share ideas: “To me that is what the wheat tour is about,” Myers said.

At each tour stop, participants (more than 50 have signed up) pile out of cars traveling along various routes in the state and count wheat stalks within a designated square foot in a field. Each night they get together and compare their findings.

On Thursday, the group plans to announce their forecast of total production and yields for the 2004 wheat crop at the Kansas City Board of Trade.

So far, the only official indications of how the crop is doing statewide have been the weekly crop condition reports released by the Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service.

Those reports show wheat has deteriorated in Kansas. On Monday, the agency reported 32 percent of the state’s crop was in poor to very poor condition. Another 30 percent was in fair shape with 33 percent listed as good and 5 percent as excellent.

In the fall of 2003, Kansas farmers planted 9.9 million acres of winter wheat, 5 percent less than the previous year, according to the service.

The Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service earlier this month said in its wheat outlook report that wheat plantings of all types across the United States were at the lowest level since 1973.

U.S. farmers are expected to plant a total of 59.5 million wheat acres this season, down 2.2 million acres from a year ago. The nation’s plantings of hard red winter wheat — the type grown in Kansas — total 39.9 million acres.