Kansas farmers expected to harvest record soybean crop

? Scranton farmer John Heise has never seen a soybean harvest like this one.

Sitting in the lines at the grain elevator early in the harvest, even longtime farmers have been talking about this being the best soybean crop they have seen here in 60 to 70 years of farming, he said.

On Tuesday, the Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service agreed.

In its revised crop production forecast, the agency predicted a record soybean crop of 110.7 million bushels in Kansas — up 17 percent from their projection just a month ago and 94 percent above last year’s crop. Yields were expected to average 41 bushels per acre.

If realized, the crop will set Kansas records for both production and yield, the service said.

“I imagine we will remember this one for a very long time,” Heise said. “It is fun to have a harvest like this.”

Heise, president of the Kansas Soybean Assn., said many growers would be paying bills this year. In the past few years, much of the state’s soybean crops have burned up in the drought and heat.

But there may be enough money this year to catch up on machinery replacement, to get that truck replaced and or take off on that vacation postponed for the last three or four years, he said.

Timely rains this spring and summer gave the soybean plants just the right amount of moisture with the right spacing of time between rains.

“It was just a picture-perfect year for soybeans,” Heise said.

Production forecasts issued Tuesday for other fall crops also were good:

l Anticipated Kansas corn production was adjusted downward to 407 million bushels, down 3 percent from the estimate a month ago. What had been projected to be a record corn harvest for the state is now shaping up to look like the state’s fourth-best corn crop. Yields were forecast to average 148 bushels per acre statewide.

l Milo production is forecast at 217.5 million bushels, up 67 percent from last year. Yields are expected to average 75 bushels per acre statewide.

l Sunflower production is forecast at 241.7 million pounds, up 18 percent from a year ago. The expected yield of 1,530 pounds per acre would be a record high if realized.

Also on Tuesday, the statistics service released its weekly crop weather report showing 64 percent of the corn has now been harvested. Also cut to date is 27 percent of the state’s milo, 52 percent of its soybeans and 18 percent of sunflowers.