I think it is a done deal for dry land wheat out west. If they do not get good moisture soon they won't even plant Milo!!!
Western Kansas wheat crop suffering amidst drought Posted on Monday, April 18, 2011
By Rachel Whitten
April 18, 2011
(KansasReporter) TOPEKA, Kan. – Despite rain and snow last week, much of western Kansas remains in a drought, a condition which is harming wheat crops in that area, the National Agriculture Statistics Service reported Monday.
About 42 percent of the winter wheat crop in the state now is rated poor or very poor. Even though storms moved through the state at the end of last week, only 12 of 52 weather stations reported more than an inch of precipitation. The drought began early last fall, according to Justin Gilpin, CEO of the Kansas What Commission.
“Unfortunately that’s the situation for a lot of the wheat in western Kansas,” Gilpin said. “This time of year is when wheat crop needs moisture and those areas just have not gotten the moisture it needs.”
The situation does not bode well for the crop as a whole this year, he said.
“In many areas of the southern plains and western Kansas, the prospects for wheat yields don’t look very good,” Gilpin said.
Wheat has slipped to second place behind corn as Kansas’ most widely planted grain, but last summer’s $1.9 billion harvest remains the United States’ largest.
Farmers: Drought hurting wheat crops
Last significant rainfall event occurred in August.
By Mike Corn - Special to The News
MONUMENT - Neither rain, nor sleet, nor gloom from mud-covered windows could keep a farmer and his now mostly brown John Deere tractor from discing under 180 acres of wheat that could only be seen upon close examination.
And never mind the blowing snow one recent day, the disc pulled behind the tractor was throwing up dry dirt clods as a cloud of dust followed behind - quickly pushed to the south by winds gusting as much as 45 mph.
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He didn't want to give his last name. "Just Steve," he said, as he kicked at the ground, pointing out rows of wheat - a smattering of small plants that had only recently emerged.
They, as had other fields in the western third of Kansas, had fallen victim to a lack of rain.
"In August," Steve the farmer said of when his field had last received any significant rainfall. "This is nonsense."
In the area where he was plowing under the wheat, less than 3 inches of moisture has fallen since Aug. 5.
Although he hails from closer to Colby, about 25 miles to the north of the field he was discing under, Steve said the crop has struggled since it was planted. It's not much different in the Colby area, either.
But when asked what he plans to do with the field, he was straightforward:
"Haven't decided," he said, turning aside the idea of planting milo. "Depends on if it rains or not."
The 180-acre field that he was discing wasn't covered by insurance, he said, adding that other wheat in the area was spotty at best.
It's that way throughout the western tier of counties, according to Sunflower Extension District agriculture agent Dana Belshe, who hailed the moisture left behind by recent blizzard conditions in Goodland.
Early reports put the moisture content of the "wet snow" at about 0.8 of an inch, which he said would boost the crop.
"Nice blizzard," he said. "We're happy with the moisture."
Wheat conditions in the three-county district he serves are spotty, Belshe said.
"There's a lot of variability in the wheat," he said. "It just depends on who got the spots of moisture."
Conditions in the Goodland area, as well as much of the western third of Kansas have been unusually dry since August - the last time any significant moisture was recorded.
"We haven't had much moisture this winter," Belshe said. "I think I only scraped my driveway a couple times this year."
He's not willing to write off the crop just yet, however.
"If we have moisture, we could have a decent crop," Belshe said. "Not a bumper crop."
Kansas State University wheat breeder Joe Martin is confident of that.
"We're going to have quite a bit of late-emerging stuff," he said, adding that he's already been told of crop adjustors zeroing out wheat fields.
"Even that that came up in mid-winter doesn't have a chance to yield much," he said.
While the crop in Hays continues to hold on, Martin said continued dry weather could turn that around fast.
"We could be in the same condition right here if it keeps going like this," he said.
But it's going to need plenty of moisture, and a quarter of an inch won't help much once temperatures warm again.
Some fields in the area were already dropping leaves and tillers, shedding anything extra just to survive.
"It's amazing how long it can just hang on," Martin said of the crop. "I'm sure we're hurting the yield. We should be growing like mad and putting on more tillers. But that ain't happening."
