HRW Tour Sees Decline in Wheat Conditions from East to West
By Julia Debes, USW Assistant Director of Communications
Seventy five people in 20 vehicles scouted 570 Kansas wheat fields from Manhattan to Colby to Wichita on the 2013 Hard Red Winter Wheat Quality Tour this week, sponsored by the Wheat Quality Council.
While the group estimated an average 41.1 bushels per acre during the three days scouting wheat fields, Ben Handcock, executive vice president of the Wheat Quality Council, said the group had probably overestimated the wheat crop.
Overall, the wheat crop’s growth is far behind last year at this time. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) reported on April 28 that just 1 percent of the wheat crop is headed, well behind 70 percent last year and an average of 19 percent. The crop is currently rated at 39 percent very poor to poor, 34 percent fair and 27 percent good to excellent.
On the first day of the tour, the group traveled from Manhattan in the eastern portion of the state to Colby in the west. Participants reported seeing drier and drier soil and some evidence of freeze damage.
“The wheat in central Kansas started pretty good, but as we continued west, things got progressively worse,” Shawn Campbell, assistant director of the USW West Coast Office in Portland, OR, said. “The final outcome of the wheat crop is highly dependent on timely rains.”
At the end of the day Tuesday, representatives from Nebraska and Colorado also contributed reports to the group in Colby. In Nebraska, average yield is much lower at 30 bushels per acre, caused by the continued drought in the western and central portions of the state.
Colorado’s wheat crop is estimated to make 34 bushels per acre. Darrell Hanavan, executive director of the Colorado Wheat Administrative Committee, said his group drove 100 miles without making a stop in a wheat field, except to take a picture to show how dry it really is.
Ron Suppes, vice chairman of the Kansas Wheat Commission and a past USW chairman, who farms near Dighton, KS, said without rain in the next week he is unlikely to have much wheat crop at all. Suppes said from the end of September 2011 to the beginning of May 2012, he had six inches of moisture compared to the average annual rainfall of 17 inches; since September 2012, he has had three.
“In my part of the country, the wheat is on its last hoorah,” he said. “It’s not the freeze, it’s the drought.”
On Wednesday, the group left Colby to travel south and east before ending the day in Wichita, KS. While groups in the far west of the state saw very poor wheat, other participants saw wheat with more growth potential.
“At the beginning of the day Tuesday, we saw a similar situation as yesterday with clear evidence of serious drought and freeze effects,” said Casey Chumrau, USW market analyst. “As we moved east and south, however, the wheat was better than expected in several areas with taller, thicker stands.”
I was on the route that scouted the far western third of the state, which is in very poor condition. Our first seven dryland fields counted averaged just 12.3 bushels per acre. As we turned east, the wheat steadily improved and by our last stop our dryland average estimate increased to 26 bushels per acre.
In Wichita, Mike Schulte, executive director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission, reported on conditions across Oklahoma. He said dry weather definitely has had an impact on wheat in Oklahoma with a delay in crop progress and thin stands in most of the state, including a large reduction in yield for wheat in the Panhandle. In the northeast and central portions of the state, the wheat crop has a good stand and looks much healthier, but agronomists still have concerns about drought conditions and freeze damage. Overall, the Oklahoma estimate is 25.45 bushels per acre, but Schulte expects that is a little high.
The tour wrapped up Thursday as the group made their way from Wichita to Kansas City. While there is not as much wheat in the eastern portion of the state, they made an additional 29 stops despite very stormy and windy weather conditions. Final crop presentations were made at the Kansas City Board of Trade.