by James Jordan, Sumner Newscow — The wheat harvest should be in full swing later in the week, and this year should be better than the previous two, which were not very good.

Wellington Farmers Co-op Manager Curt Guinn said the elevator in Wellington has been getting about two trucks a day so far. The tests have been good so far with the weight of wheat at 61 pounds a bushel and 13 percent moisture.

“We are still a couple of days away,” Guinn said. “It’s still a little wet and the farmers are busy at the moment planting soybean.”

The price of soybean is at $10.61 while the price of wheat is $4.24 a bushel. Granted it costs more to raise soybeans, but many farmers are hedging their bets on a more profitable soybean crop since the price of wheat is low.

Guinn said he expects that to change quickly and he expects his operation will be busy by the end of the week.

He said he had not seen enough wheat to know the condition locally, but regionally reports say the crop is in good shape.

Sumner Extension Randy Hein said he had heard some people were ready to start cutting, and so far it looks good.

“It looks pretty good. There are a few problems but there are some problems every year,” he said. “Unless there’s a bad storm or some hail, it should be good.”

The wet and cool weather in the spring helped the wheat fill out. The dry winter was a concern, and has caused some area to be thin, but the rains came in time this year, he said.

Last year, drought took its toll. And then there were untimely hard rains, heavy wind and even hail that had a detrimental impact on the crop.  It was one of the few years that the overall crop was damaged by drought and flooding in the same year. And that was the second consecutive bad year. 2014 was less than half of what 2013 had been, but 2013 was a very good year for wheat in Sumner County and the rest of the state.

There were a few good areas last year, but there were a lot of places that got 10-15 acres per bushel, and some felt that was not even worth cutting.

For the entire state, there was 321 million bushels harvested, compared to 246 million in 2014, which was the lowest in 25 years, according to the Kansas Wheat Association.  In 2013 there was 310 million bushels harvested in the state.

In May the Kansas Wheat Association had its annual tour, surveying 655 fields across the state. They are projecting an average of 48 bushes per acre, 14 percent more than last year, across the state.

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