Agricultural News
Kansas Wheat Tour Participants Call Crop Spotty With Significant Drought Stress the Norm
Wed, 18 May 2022 04:33:19 CDT
About 83 people from 24 U.S. states plus Mexico and Canada, traveled in 20 cars on six routes between Manhattan and Colby, Kan., Tuesday, stopping at wheat fields every 15-20 miles along the routes, as part of the Wheat Quality Council's 64th Annual Hard Winter Wheat Evaluation Tour.One of those traveling the on the tour in 2022 is Chris Kirby with the Oklahoma Wheat Commission- Chris talked with a couple of the participants at the end of day one- you can hear her conversations by clicking on the Listen Bar at the bottom of this story.
Tuesday's cars of wheat tour scouts made 248 stops at wheat fields across north central, central and northwest Kansas, and into southern counties in Nebraska. The calculated yield is based on what scouts saw at this point in time. A lot can happen between now and harvest. The calculated yield from all cars was 39.5 bushels per acre, which was 20 bushels lower than the yield of 59.2 bushels per acre from the same routes in 2021.
Statewide, based on May 1 conditions, Kansas' 2022 winter wheat crop is forecast at 271 million bushels, down 93 million bushels from last year's crop, according to NASS. Average yield is forecast at 39 bushels per acre, down 13 bushels from last year. Acreage to be harvested for grain is estimated at 6.950 million acres, comparable to last year's 7 million acres. This would be 94% of the planted acres, below last year's 96% harvested.
The overall theme for day one of this year's tour is "spotty." Stand establishment was spotty last fall. The crop is thin and short. Jeanne Falk-Jones, Kansas State University Multi-County Agronomy Specialist, reported that the crop was a week or two behind average about a month ago, but with the hot temperatures lately, it is now about a week ahead of average.
Romulo Lollato, K-State wheat extension specialist, reported that yields varied greatly based on cropping system. Wheat after fallow looked better than wheat after corn or soybeans. "We saw wheat today that looked better than other fields, but comparing to last year, the yield potential is not nearly as good," he said.
While the USDA/NASS estimated 6% abandonment, Lollato estimates abandonment will be more like 8-10%.
"We need to be thankful to breeders that we have a crop this year," said Lollato. "Genetics are playing an important part. Genetics will have a huge impact on baking quality and protein." He added, kernels are currently developing, so we can still get test weight if we get rain. Heat stress can hurt the test weights.
If there was any good news from day 1, it's that there was very little disease pressure. There haven't been reports of stripe rust in the area because of the lack of moisture.
Wheat Tour 22 continues Wednesday with six routes between Colby and Wichita, Kansas.
The pictures shown here are from the Twitter posts from serveral individuals- including Jeniifer Latzke, David Schemm, CHS Hedging, Romulo Lollato and Matthew Wilde.
The picture at the top is a field estimated to produce the day's avearge- 39 BPA. The first picture below the story is one of the better fields shown on Twitter- in Rice County and it had an estimated 47 BPA. Then we see less yield potential- short and thin wheat was seen a lot- and lots of cracks in the dry soil- the yard stiick picture shows this stick down18 inches- and finally the bottom picture captures the summary of the tour results for day one.
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