On Wednesday, the White House and USDA announced improved nutrition standards for school lunches. And as it turns out, Kansas wheat farmers have a stake in the new standards.

Rain and snow events the last two weeks of December have put the 2012 Kansas wheat crop in good shape, according to an informal survey of farmers throughout the state.

Three $1,000 cash prizes and several potential bonus awards are at stake for wheat growers who enter the 2012 Kansas Wheat Yield Contest, sponsored by the Kansas Wheat Commission and Kansas Association of Wheat Growers. Corporate sponsors of the Yield Contest include: BASF, Syngenta, Monsanto, Kansa

On July 12, Kansas Wheat Commission board members broke ground for the new Kansas Wheat Innovation Center (KWIC), a state-of-the-art wheat research/office complex being built on the north campus of Kansas State University in Manhattan.

Reagan Kays, pictured, won the 2010 Clutter Memorial Scholarship, in the amount of $500. The Herb Clutter Memorial Scholarship was established in 2009 by the Kansas Wheat Research Foundation, which is administered by the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers.