Day 9, Kansas Wheat Harvest Report

By Julia Debes – Kansas Wheat

That is day 9 of the Kansas Wheat Harvest Stories, dropped at you by the Kansas Wheat Fee, Kansas Affiliation of Wheat Growers and the Kansas Grain and Feed Affiliation.

Harvest is in full swing throughout the state for these with fields dry sufficient to get the mix in. The Kansas Wheat crew headed out to western Kansas this week to meet up with mix crews and go to elevators for an on-the-ground take a look at the 2022 crop.

Jon Berning with Berning Farms in Scott Metropolis was fairly proud of how the harvest goes. With solely a day or two of harvest remaining, he’s seeing a variety of yields throughout the farm’s acreage from 35 to 80 bushels per acre. Take a look at weights are heavy at 64 kilos per bushel and a few fields have protein within the mid-teens. Moisture is various between 11 and 12 %.

Berning was grateful for his harvest crews’ assist this yr, which incorporates his son, one other younger man and a few harvesters from South Africa. One among his mix drivers will attend Newman College to check enterprise or accounting subsequent yr on a {golfing} scholarship — proof that farmers and their assist can and do sometimes get off the farm!

Rick Horton, who farms close to Leoti in Wichita County, was additionally glad to be harvesting, largely as a result of he and his brother Alec invested in a brand new Claas mix. The brothers began reducing final Saturday, maybe a day sooner than the wheat wanted, to check out the brand new machine.

Wheat harvest started in earnest on Monday. With a couple of week left to go, yields are coming in at 64 bushels per acre with passable take a look at weights within the 60s kilos per bushel and 11 % moisture.

The Horton operation is really a household affair, with the brothers operating the combines and their wives within the accompanying tractors and grain carts. Vance, Rick’s nine-year-old son, is already studying find out how to assist out with harvest, persevering with a proud household farm custom.

At D.E. Bondurant in Ness Metropolis, the Kansas Wheat crew spoke with coop president Gary Gantz. The elevator took in its first load on June 13, and the realm is now about three-quarters of the way in which accomplished with harvest, nicely forward of regular tempo.

“I can’t bear in mind a time once we had been completed with harvest earlier than the Fourth of July,” Gantz mentioned, “however we needs to be wrapped up by then this yr.”

Yields differ considerably from the west a part of Ness County to the jap portion. Within the west, yields are averaging 25 bushels per acre, all the way down to as little as 15 bushels per acre. Within the east, yields are averaging as much as 50 to 60 bushels per acre. Wheat planted behind corn took the most important hit because the brief crop meant wheat heads didn’t attain greater than the remaining corn stubble, inflicting combining points.

With variations from 9 to 14 %, Gantz expects protein to common round 11.3 to 11.4 % this yr. Take a look at weights are heavy at 62 to 63 kilos per bushel.

The 2022 Harvest Report is dropped at you by the Kansas Wheat Fee, Kansas Affiliation of Wheat Growers and the Kansas Grain and Feed Affiliation. To observe together with harvest updates on Twitter, use #wheatharvest22. Tag us at @kansaswheat on Fb, Instagram and Twitter to share your harvest story and images.