Excessive wetness across the central and southern Great Plains has delayed winter wheat harvest and threatened crop quality, the National Agricultural Statistics Service said Tuesday.

In its weekly weather bulletin, the agency reported that winter wheat across the middle Mississippi Valley and the southern half of the Great Plains was completed or near completion. Wheat crops were maturing at a normal pace in all wheat growing states – except for Kansas, Colorado and Montana.

The nation’s wheat harvest begins in the southern states and moves northward. NASS noted the wheat harvest so far in Texas was 10 percent completed, compared with 25 percent at this time last year. In Oklahoma, harvest was just 3 percent complete, compared with 45 percent at this date a year ago.

The winter wheat harvest typically begins in early June in Kansas. The report noted no wheat has been harvested in the state. At the OK Co-op Grain Co. elevator in Kiowa, general manager Alan Meyers said he expected the wheat harvest in his area not to begin in earnest for at least another week and a half.