Rains taking toll on quality of wheat in state

Nearly half of Kansas' crop in poor condition

? Rains that delayed the start of wheat harvest in Kansas also have taken a toll on its quality, but early bushels still are better than many expected.

“Before the rains, the quality was wonderful,” said Alan Meyers, manager of the OK Co-op Grain in Kiowa. “It is still good, but the rains have taken two pounds off the test weights.”

With 1.3 million bushels of wheat now in OK Co-Op Grain’s seven area elevators, Meyers said test weights had been running from 59 to 61 pounds. Most is still grading as No. 1 wheat, he said.

“It is not like we are hurting, but it is not as good as it was,” he said.

Yields have been reported in the low 40 bushels per acre range, normal for this part of the state, Meyers said.

“We are pleased. Some of the hot, dry weather a few weeks ago had us pretty worried and it turned out to be a good, solid, average year,” Meyers said. “Nothing wonderful, but a good, solid, average year.”

Statewide, however, nearly half the 2004 winter wheat crop is in poor to very poor shape, Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service reported Monday. It rated wheat condition as 25 percent very poor, 23 percent poor, 26 percent fair, 24 percent good and 2 percent excellent.

This year’s Kansas wheat crop has been plagued by drought, late spring freezes, hail, tornadoes, disease and insects — in various degrees of severity depending on the part of the state where the wheat is.

Some of the better wheat is expected to be cut in southern counties. Early bushels from those areas are looking better than expected.

“What I’ve seen so far looks good — excellent wheat,” said Ed Crittenden, assistant manager at the Two Rivers Co-op in Arkansas City.

Test weights have been running about 60 pounds per bushel, and the grain kernels filled well despite the heat, he said.

But the weekend rains have dampened harvest activity — with wheat ripe but too wet to cut in many places.

“What looked like was going to be an early harvest is not going to be that way,” Crittenden said.

At the wheat harvest office in Kingman, Martin Hampel said it would likely be Tuesday before cutting gets into full swing. The area took in about 25,000 bushels over the weekend, with test weights running 60 pounds per bushel.

Wheat is still green in southern Reno County, he said.

Other parts of the state have seen far more variable quality.

In Caldwell, most of the wheat that has come in so far has been No. 2 wheat. Test weights have been running anywhere from 48 to 59 pounds per bushel.

“At this point we are going to have a little bit of everything,” said Rob Johnston, manager at the Farmers Co-op Grain in Caldwell. “We are going to have some good wheat and some that is not.”

Some wheat has shriveled from heat stress, some shows disease and some was winter weather damage, he said.

Across the state, 59 percent of the crop shows no presence of disease, KASS said. About 28 percent of the crop shows light disease damage, with 12 percent showing moderate and 1 percent severe disease presence.

Kansas appears to be spared from the multistate outbreak of wheat scab, a fungus that withers the grain and can sicken humans and livestock. Severe infestations been found as far west as Missouri and Arkansas.

Jim Shroyer, a wheat specialist at Kansas State University, inspected fields Monday in northwest Kansas. He found only a few plants with scab, which forms when spores settle on flowering plants when moisture conditions and temperatures are right.

“Last year we had a heck of a lot more rain than we did this year, it was just that weather conditions were more conducive this year,” he said. “At this point I don’t think it is an epidemic.”