GARDEN CITY, KAN: Hard red winter wheat fields in western Kansas were in good shape and showed better yield potential than a year ago, but the crop is less mature than normal for this time of year, scouts on an annual crop tour said on Wednesday.
Planting delays last fall and cold weather over the winter and spring slowed the crop's development, which could leave the wheat vulnerable to weather stress in the coming weeks.
"The crop is behind in maturity. It does add suspense to what the final yield will be," said Justin Gilpin, chief executive of Kansas Wheat, a commodity organization, who is participating in the Wheat Quality Council tour.
Kansas is the top US producer of winter wheat and was the second-largest overall wheat state in 2018, after North Dakota. The United States is the world's No. 2 wheat exporter after Russia.
Crop scouts in one car traveling in Thomas, Logan and Kearny counties in Kansas projected an average yield on four fields of nearly 45 bushels per acre (bpa). A year ago, the tour average on the same route was 33.1 bpa.
Scouts in another car traveling in the southwestern corner of the state reported an average yield near 52 bpa from five fields, and a third car in the same area found yield potential in the 50s and mid-60s.
Rain fell in the region on Tuesday and Wednesday, bringing welcome moisture for wheat.
Kyler Millershaski, who farms near Lakin, Kansas, told scouts that his area had received less than 0.25 inch of rain in April, even though other parts of the state have had ample moisture.
"We were due," he said of the rain, adding that he was hopeful about his wheat, which was seeded in late September.
"It looks good, but there is a lot that can happen between now and harvest," Millershaski said.
The tour's first-day yield average of 46.9 bpa, based on 240 field stops in northern Kansas, was the highest since 2016, a year when Kansas produced a record-high state wheat yield of 57.0 bpa.
However, Kansas farmers seeded only 7 million acres of the grain for the 2019, harvest, the fewest in USDA records dating to 1919. Plantings were curtailed by widespread rains in October.
About 76 scouts are on the three-day tour, which assessed fields on Tuesday between Manhattan, Kansas, and Colby. Scouts were traveling on Wednesday from Colby to Wichita, Kansas, before releasing a final yield estimate on Thursday.
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