Kansas Wheat Harvest Report, July 1

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This is day nine of the Kansas Wheat Harvest Reports, brought to you by the Kansas City Board of Trade, DeBruce Grain, the Kansas Grain & Feed Association and Kansas Wheat.

While wheat harvest in some areas of Kansas is coming to a close; some locations are just getting started.

Harvest is just beginning at the Decatur County Co-op, Oberlin. Trucks began trickling across the scales over the weekend and on Tuesday, the volume is beginning to pick up. Test weights average between 60 and 63 pounds per bushel, but it is too early to estimate yield or protein values.

Meanwhile, in south central Kansas, KAWG Board Member Randy Fritzemeier of Stafford, has about 300 acres of wheat left to harvest. The yield in Stafford and surrounding counties is averaging in the 20 bushel range, Fritzemeier says, in part due to heavy rains and flooding. It will take several days for these muddy fields to dry out.

In the Linn area, harvest is beginning to slow down. Test weights at United Farmers Coop have ranged from 60 to 63. Some fields are yielding better than 70 bushels per acre; 50 bushels per acre is the norm.

Ted Schultz, with Team Marketing Alliance in Moundridge, says that by the end of the week, harvest in the company's 48 locations should be about wrapped up. Overall, the harvest production is right at the company's five-year average; however, there was a great deal of variability. The locations averaged a protein value of 11 but again, protein is variable.

Jerry McReynolds, first vice president of NAWG from Stockton, says summer-fallow wheat in Rooks County is faring pretty good, while continuous and double-crop wheat is average to poor. Test weights have averaged 60-63 pounds for the most part. He expects to be wrapped up by the end of the Fourth of July weekend, although frequent pop-up rain showers have hindered harvest progress a bit.

Finally, Monday was a record day at the AgMark LLC terminal in Concordia. More than 610 trucks hauled in the largest one-day total in the terminal's 10-year history: 512,800 bushels. Harvest in north central Kansas is more than half done, with better-than-expected yields in the area.

The 2009 Harvest Salute to Producers is brought to you by Kansas Wheat in conjunction with sponsors Kansas City Board of Trade, DeBruce Grain and the Kansas Grain & Feed Association.

Kansas Wheat is the cooperative agreement between the Kansas Wheat Commission and the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers, joining together as "leaders in the adoption of profitable innovations for wheat."