By Steve Watson
Everest remains the most widely planted individual wheat variety in Kansas, according to the latest Kansas Wheat Varieties report from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.
Everest is a K-State variety, developed by the Manhattan breeding program and marketed by Kansas Wheat Alliance. It is the most popular variety in all six of the central and eastern Agricultural Statistics Districts. In northwest Kansas, WestBred Winterhawk is the most widely planted variety. Limagrain’s T158 is the most widely planted variety in west central and southwest Kansas.
Statewide, the top five individual varieties in terms of acreage planted for the 2017 season are:
1. Everest (Kansas Wheat Alliance): 9.6 percent
2. T158 (Limagrain): 5.9 percent
3. Winterhawk (WestBred): 4.8 percent
4. LCS Mint (Limagrain): 4.3 percent
5. WB-Grainfield (WestBred): 3.9 percent
5. TAM 111 (Syngenta AgriPro): 3.9 percent
For the first time, the general category of “Blends” is actually planted on more acres than any individual variety, however. There are several different blends grown in Kansas.
Blends are especially popular in north central Kansas, accounting for nearly 30 percent of the acreage in that district. Blends are also popular in central, south central, southwest, and east central Kansas, with more than 10 percent of the acreage in each of those districts.
The most widely planted hard white wheat in Kansas is Danby, also a K-State variety, developed by the breeding program in Hays and marketed by Kansas Wheat Alliance. White wheat is more popular in southwest Kansas than any other district.
There were 2,167 positive reports summarized for this year’s Wheat Varieties survey, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service’s publication. The Wheat Variety project is funded by Kansas Wheat.