The late spring freeze that encased the Midwest apparently has wrought more havoc on the Kansas wheat crop than even last year’s drought, a new report shows.

Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service reported Monday that only 27 percent of the state’s winter wheat crop escaped freeze damage, and that the remaining wheat suffered far more than had been feared.

The agency estimated freeze damage to the Kansas crop as 29 percent severe, 24 percent moderate and 20 percent light. The worst damage was along the central corridor of the state.

The new condition report pegged 41 percent of this season’s winter wheat as being in poor to very poor condition – even worse than last year at this time, when 30 percent of the drought-ravaged crop fell in that category. Conditions for the rest of this year’s wheat: 25 percent fair, 24 percent good and 10 percent excellent.

Kansas, the nation’s biggest wheat producer, was hit hard by the freeze. By comparison, just 8 percent was in poor to very poor condition in Oklahoma.