Wichita ? For decades, a network of wheat harvest offices across Kansas has linked farmers with wandering custom cutters looking for work. Its daily reports of crop quality and harvest progress generated by its coordinators provided an ever-changing snapshot eagerly anticipated by industry observers.

All that ended quietly for this upcoming harvest season.

But nobody at the Kansas Department of Commerce – which runs the program – thought to tell the farmers, custom harvesters and other industry leaders who have depended on its services for the past 41 years.

“We simply had some communication error. We made a mistake. We dropped the ball,” said Rae Anne Davis, deputy secretary at the Kansas Department of Commerce.

Kansas Wheat, a cooperative venture between the Kansas Wheat Commission and the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers, learned about the state’s decision not to fund the harvest offices when The Hays Daily News called after hearing from a former harvest coordinator, Peterson said.

On Wednesday, Davis called Kansas Wheat to apologize for not notifying the group, said Dana Peterson, producer policy specialist.

The decision also came as a surprise to U.S. Custom Harvesters, an industry group representing the nation’s custom cutters. The group found out about the change from a former harvest coordinator 10 days ago, said Tim Baker, operations manager for the Hutchinson-based group.

Davis told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the department will continue to provide services to custom cutters looking for work through its work-force centers located in 20 Kansas communities. She said Kansas Wheat and the Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service already provide wheat harvest information.

“We are simply not duplicating that service any longer,” Davis said. “It doesn’t really result in anybody’s inability to not get the services.”

But industry groups are scrambling to take up the slack after finding out about the decision just as wheat harvest begins in the state.

Baker said he does not envision farmers going into work-force centers in larger cities.

“Harvesters, they visit among themselves a fair amount. That information may spread among the harvester group, but I don’t know if farmers will know where to go when they need a harvester,” he said.

Meanwhile at Kansas Wheat, Peterson said the group will do what it can this season to inform farmers and redirect people to work-force centers and the custom cutters group, but it doesn’t have funds to do the work that was once done by the dedicated harvest offices.

“We don’t have the resources to do that. We can help,” Peterson said.