Wichita ? Participants in this year’s Wheat Quality Council tour pegged the Kansas wheat harvest at slightly more than 355 million bushels.

“Overall the group was a little surprised once they got out there to see some of the stressed conditions the crop was in — especially in western Kansas,” said Justin Gilpin, project coordinator for the Kansas Wheat Commission.

Their forecast is far below last year’s bountiful winter wheat crop when Kansas farmers brought in 480 million bushels.

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.

After a three-day tour inspecting 453 wheat fields, the group also forecast average yields statewide of 37.4 bushels per acre.

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 Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service.

Participants found conditions varied greatly across the state.

During the first leg of the tour, which ran from Manhattan to Colby, the group estimated average yields of 38 bushels per acre. Projected yields were better in the central part of that leg, and poorer once the tour got west of Russell.

From Colby to Wichita, the group came up with an average yield of 35.4 bushels per acre on those fields. Wheat fields from Wichita to Kansas City were estimated at 44 bushels per acre.

This year’s crop is a week to 10 days more mature than it normally is at this time of year, and that is making some producers nervous that a late frost could hurt crops.